THE 


CORRESPONDENCE 


OP 


JOHN    LOTHEOP  MOTLEY, 

D.C.L., 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  RISE  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC," 
"THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  NETHERLANIS,"  ETC. 


EDITED    BY 


'GEOBGE    WILLIAM    CUKTIS. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES.— VOL.  II. 


'. 
WITH    PORTRAIT. 


LONDON: 
JOHN    MUKKAY,    ALBEMAELE    STEEET. 

1889. 


LONDON: 
PRINTED  BY  WILLIAM  CLOWES  AND  SONS,  LIMITED-,, 

STAMFORD  STREET  AND  CHARING  CROSS. 


P5 


CONTENTS  TO  VOL.  II.  V 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   CIVIL  WAR  IN  AMERICA. 

Mr.  Motley  returns  to  America — The  war — Boston  society — Remem- 
brances to  friends  in  England — The  Northern  army — Its  numbers 
and  quality — Departure  of  the  Gordon  Regiment  for  the  seat  of 
war — The  "  Mercenaries  "  —  "  The  North  is  a  unit " — Death  of 
Mrs.  Longfellow — Objects  and  prospects  of  the  war — The  com- 
manders— McClellan — McDowell — Patterson — Johnston — Butler  — 
Humours  of  engagements — Lord  Lyndhurst  on  Mr.  Motley's  letter 
— "  Commencement"  at  Harvard  University — Reception  of  General 
Scott's  name — Skirmish  of  July  18th — Converging  on  Manassas — 
A  review  at  Boston — Lieutenant  Brownell — Battle  of  Bull's  Run — 
Eirst  rumours — News  of  .the  defeat — Lord  J.  Russell's  letter — The 
essence  of  the  Union — Cause  of  defeat  at  Bull's  Run — The  war  was 
inevitable — Josiah  Quincy — Longfellow — Holmes — "  Tom  Brown  " 
— Incidents  of  the  battle — Mr.  Motley  appointed  United  States 
Minister  to  Austria  —  The  Duke  of  Argyll  on  the  feeling  of 
England 


mi 
.z 


CHAPTER  II. 

VIENNA. 

Voyage  to  Liverpool — Fryston  Hall — Mr.  W.  E.  Forster— Lord  J. 
Russell — Abergeldie — The  cotton  famine — The  English  press — Bal- 
moral— Interview  with  the  Queen — Paris — M.  Thouvenel — The 
English  Government  and  the  Press — Life  in  Vienna — Letter  to 
Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — News  of  the  Battle  of  Ball's  Bluff— Anxiety 
and  suspense — Attitude  of  the  European  Powers — Letter  from  Dn 
Q.  W.  Holmes— His  son's  remarkable  escape  at  Ball's  Bluff— The 
Trent  affair — Imminent  risk  of  war  with  England — Action  of  the 
Times — An  anxious  crisis — Awaiting  the  President's  Message  .  33 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  III. 
VIENNA  (1862) — continued. 

PAGE 

Mr.  Bright's  letter  on  the  Trent  affair,  negotiations,  and  on  the  blockade 
— Settlement  of  the  Trent  affair — The  War  and  Slavery  Party  in 
England — Society  in  Vienna — Compared  with  that  in  London — 
Austrian  sympathy  with  the  North — Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes 
— The  South  and  slavery — Mr.  Conway — Letter  from  Lord  Wens- 
leydale  on  International  Questions  and  Law — Vienna  theatres  — 
'J  he  privilege  of  prophesying — '  Songs  in  many  Keys ' — Feeling  in 
England  towards  the  North — Democracy  in  England  and  America 
— The  prospect  in  America — Slavery  must  be  abolished — A  policy 
of  "  Thorough  "—Lowell's  *  Yankee  Idyll  '—The  Archduke  Ferdi- 
nand Maximilian — Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Mr.  Quincy — 
Enthusiasm  on  capture  of  Fort  Donelson — The  Court  in  Vienna — 
"  Compromise  was  kilted  at  Sumter  " — Achievements  of  the  North 
— The  Canal — The  Monitor — General  Burnside — What  is  to  come 
after  the  war  ? — Reflections  on  the  war — The  Union  must  survive — 
Eulogium  of  Lincoln — The  Sovereignty  of  the  people — Louis  Napo- 
leon's endeavour  to  induce  England  to  join  in  the  war — General 
McClellan — The  Richmond  battles — Abraham  Hayward — Letter 
from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Forecasts — Rumours  from  the  front — 
Enthusiasm  at  Boston — Reflections  on  the  war — General  McClellan 
— Concentration  of  troops  on  the  Rappahannock — Cedar  Mount 
Battle — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  on  the  war— Mr.  Dicey's  *  Notes 
of  a  Journey  in  America' — Laws  and  rights  of  war — A  letter  from 
Mr.  J.  S.  Mill — Lincoln's  Anti-Slavery  Proclamation — English  and 
French  sympathy  with  the  North — Action  of  the  English  Govern- 
ment— Incidents  of  the  War — Elections  in  America — French  policy 
—Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes— The  mischief  of  "  Mercantile 
Materialism  " — The  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia — Mr.  Froude's  and 
T.  Carlyle's  Histories  —  General  Wadsworth  —  Death  of  Mrs. 
d'Hauteville— Results  of  Elections  .  51 


CHAPTER  IV. 

VIENNA  (1863) — continued. 

Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell— Exclusiveness  of  Viennese  Society — The 
Throne  of  Greece— Baron  Sina— "  Varius  "—Letter  from  Mr.  J.  S. 
Mill— The  early  settlers  in  New  England  and  in  Virginia— The 
Alabama  —  Northern  successes  —  Prof.  Goldwin  Smith  and  Dr. 
Whewell  on  the  war— Growth  of  anti-slavery  feeling  in  England — 
Meeting  at  Liverpool— Duke  of  Argyll's  speech — The  Times  and  its 
influence — Failings  of  the  American  body  politic— Vienna  Salons — 
compared  with  English  Society  —  European  sympathy  with  the 


CONTENTS. 


United  States  —  Letter  from  Mr.  Bright  —  English  jealousy  of 
America — Kevulsion  of  public  feeling — Humours  of  French  inter- 
vention— Baron  Sina — Adelina  Patti — Exclusiveness  of  the  Austrian 
aristocracy — Letter  from  Baron  von  Bismarck  on  the  vexations  of 
a  Minister — The  German  people — Humours  of  European  War — 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Eussell — Dulness  of  Viennese  Society — The 
Polish  question  —  Secret  societies  in  Warsaw — The  climate  of 
Vienna — Hon.  E.  Twisleton — News  of  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg 
and  battle  of  Gettysburg — General  Lee's  position — Maximilian,. 
Emperor  of  Mexico — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — The  recent  vic- 
tories— Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes'  oration — The  drought  in  Vienna — 
Elections  in  America — Louis  Napoleon's  scheme  of  a  Congress  of 
Sovereigns — European  complications — The  lessons  of  war — General 
Grant  100 


CHAPTER  V. 
VIENNA  (1864) — continued. 

Festivities  at  Vienna — The  war  drawing  to  a  close — The  Danish  war — 
Letter  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll — Colonel  Robert  Shaw — A  Court 
dinner — The  Empress — Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — The  Schleswig- 
Holstein  affair — Emperor  Maximilian  —  The  Honourable  Julian 
Fane — Letter  from  Mr.  E.  Everett — The  East  Tennessee  Fund — 
Change  of  feeling  in  America — Letter  from  Baron  von  Bismarck — 
Death  of  Mr.  Motley's  father — Death  of  Mr.  Julius  Lothrop — 
Grant's  Richmond  campaign  —  The  Alabama,  and  Kearsarge — 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — At  work  on  the  '  History ' — Death  of 
General  Wadsworth — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell — Editorship  of 
the  North  American  Review — An  appeal  for  contributions — Poli- 
tical prospect  in  America — The  sinking  of  the  Alabama — The 
Vienna  conferences — Lincoln  and  Grant — The  repulse  at  Petersburg 
— A  dinner  with  Bismarck — King  of  Prussia's  visit  to  Vienna — • 
Candidates  for  the  Presidency — Excluded  from  the  Vienna  Ar- 
chives— The  "  Woman's  League  " — First  principles  of  commerce — 
The  ebb  and  flow  of  gold — Paper  currency — National  economy — 
Peace  conferences  at  Vienna  —  McClellan's  candidature  —  Count 
Spiegel — Condition  of  the  Austrian  peasantry — Tour  to  Gmunden 
and  Ischl — Salzburg — Venice — Breakfast  with  Prince  Augustus  of 
Saxe-Coburg — The  Comte  de  Paris — His  sympathy  with  the  North 
— Work  on  the  'History' — Intention  of  writing  History  of  Thirty 
Years'  War — The  Prater — The  Opera — Lincoln  President  the  second 
time — Belief  in  democracy — Winter  in  Vienna — Letter  from  Mr. 
J.  R.  Lowell — The  North  American  Beview  again — Prospects  of 
the  end  of  the  war.  ,  :  •  . 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 
VIENNA  (1865) — continued. 

PAGE 

Dinner  with  the  Emperor — Davison  the  Actor — Capture  of  Fort  Fisher 
— Serious  illness  of  Mr.  Motley's  mother — Letter  to  the  Duchess 
o  Argyll — Assassination  of  the  President  —  General  Grant — Final 
victory  of  the  North — Abraham  Lincoln — Death  of  Lord  Carlisle — 
Letter  from  Mr.  Bright — Cobden  and  the  civil  war — Free  trade — 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Austrian  Tyrol — Hall — Gmunden — 
Condition  of  the  people — Suspension  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
Austrian  Empire — Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Marriage  of  Miss 
Motley — Sir  F.  Bruce — General  Grant — his  power  of  sleeping — 
Stanton — Admiral  Farragut  —  Mr.  Burlingame —  Mr.  Howells — 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Wendell  Holmes  198 


CHAPTER  VII. 
VIENNA  (1866,  1867)— continued. 

Andrew  Johnson,  President — A  diplomatic  party — The  European  crisis 
— Dealings  between  Austria  and  Prussia — Work  on  the  'United 
Netherlands ' — Rumoured  recall  of  Mr.  Motley — Letter  from  John 
Stuart  Mill — Introduction  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Progress  of  recon- 
struction in  America — Outbreak  of  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia 
— The  future  of  Prussia — Bismarck — Condition  of  Austria — Mar- 
shal Benedek — Rapid  movements  of  the  Prussian  army — Benedek's 
strategy — The  Bund — News  of  the  Battle  of  Koniggratz — Action 
of  Louis  Napoleon — Panic  in  Vienna — Advance  of  the  Prussian 
army — Lieutenant  Sherman — The  rapidity  of  the  campaign — The 
"Waffenruhe" —  Prospects  of  peace — Abolition  of  the  Bund — 
Unification  of  Germany — Position  of  Italy — The  Atlantic  telegraph 
and  its  effects — "  Charlemagnism  "  and  "  Americanism  " — Louis 
Napoleon's  policy — The  balance  of  power — Despatches  and  blue 
books — Collapse  of  Austria — The  King  of  Hanover — Letter  to  Mr. 
W.  Amory — Bazaar  in  Vienna  on  behalf  of  sufferers  by  the  war — 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Condition  of  Austria — Letter  to  the 
Duchess  of  Argyll— The  Duke's  « Reign  of  Law ' — General  King — 
America  and  Radicalism  —  «  The  Guardian  Angel '  —  George 
McCracken — Approaching  completion  of  the  '  United  Netherlands ' 
—Contemplated  History  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  .  .  .213 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LONDON. 

TASK 

Visits  to  old  friends — Dinner  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hughes — The  Cosmo- 
politan— Ball  at  Stafford  House — Disraeli's  Reform  Bill — Professor 
Gold-win  Smith — Friends  and  engagements — Argyll  Lodge — The 
Reform  Bill — The  Sultan  in  London  —  Breakfast  with  the  Due 
d'Aumale — Holland  House — Dinner  with  Mr.  John  Murray — Sir 
W.  Stirling — Pembroke  Lodge — Lord  and  Lady  Russell — Hon.  H. 
Elliot — Mr.  Bright — Speech  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  the  House 
of  Lords — The  Philo-biblon  Society — Breakfast  with  Mr.  Turner — 
Visit  to  Lord  Stanhope  at  Chevening  —  Chiswick — Duchess  of 
Sutherland — Dinner  with  Mr.  Gibbs — Lord  Houghton — Mr.  Forster 
— Lord  Lytton — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grote — Dinner  with  Colonel  Haniley 
— Dean  Milman — Strathfieldsaye — Lord  John  Hay — The  Duchess 
of  Wellington — Bramshill — Silchester — General  Grant  appointed 
Secretary  of  War — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sturgis — Chevening — English 
feeling  towards  America — Knole  Park — The  Bishop  of  Oxford — 
Holland  House — Visit"  to  Lord  Sydney  at  Frognal — *  Black  Sheep  r 
— *  Cometh  up  as  a  Flower ' — Lord  Wensleydale — Visit  to  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe — Professor  Owen — Madresfield  Court — Witley 
Court — The  English  aristocracy — Frampton  Court — The  Sheridans 
— Letter  from  Earl  Russell  on  Vol.  III.  of '  United  Netherlands  '— 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell  on  Mr.  Odo  Russell's  engagement — 
Neuralgia — Story's  statue  of  Mr.  Peabody — Letter  from  Mr.  George 
Ticknor  on  the  '  History  '  259 


CHAPTER  IX. 

UNITED   STATES   MINISTER  TO   ENGLAND. 

Return  to  Boston — Washington — Interview  with  Mr.  Simmer  and  other 
members  of  Government — General  Thomas — Washington  Society — 
Dinner  with  Mr.  Evarts — M.  de  Magalhaens,  M.  Berthe'my,  General 
Lawrence,  etc. — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes  on  Mr.  Motley's  ap- 
pointment as  Minister  to  England — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell 
introducing  Mr.  Spelman — Letters  from  Count  Bismarck — Invita- 
tion to  Varzin — Mr.  George  Bancroft — Letter  to  the  Duchess  of 
Argyll — London  Fog — Confidence  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government — 
Disestablishment  of  the  Church  in  Ireland — Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W. 
Holmes — The  Club — Emerson — Longfellow  ....  301 


yiii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

HOLLAND,   VARZIX,   ETC. 

TAGS 

Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — His  son  Edward's  marriage — Engagement 
of  Miss  Mary  Motley  to  Mr.  Sheridan — Contemplated  journey  to 
Holland  and  resumption  of  literary  work — Kecall  from  his  mission 
to  England — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes  on  his  daughter's  engage- 
ment—Dislike of  letter-writing — Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Con- 
gratulations on  promotion  of  Mr.  Odo  Eussell — Excursion  with  the 
•Queen  of  Holland  to  Haarlem — Brederode  Castle — Work  on  the  life 
of  John  van  Olden  Barneveld — European  politics — Gift  to  Mrs. 
Motley  from  English  ladies — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  Russell — Visit 
to  Dresden — Prague — M.  and  Madame  de  Seebach — The  Holbein 
controversy — Baron  Stockhausen — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — 
His  domestic  affairs  —  Articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  —  Mr. 
Motley's  house  at  the  Hague — John  van  Olden  Barneveld — A  Court 
ball — Leeuwarden — Market  day — Groningen — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W. 
Holmes — Engagement  of  his  son  Wendell — Affection  between 
Russia  and  America — 300th  anniversary  of  the  capture  of  Brill — 
Popularity  of  Mr.  Motley's  works  in  Holland  — '  The  Poet  at 
the  Breakfast  Table' — Death  of  Princess  Henry — Letter  from 
Prince  Bismarck — Invitation  to  Varzin — Visit  to  Varzin — Prince 
Bismarck's  home  and  daily  life — His  reminiscences  of  the  Austrian 
war — His  interviews  with  Thiers  and  Jules  Favre — His  silver 
wedding  —  The  Varzin  and  Lauenburg  estates —Berlin  —  Dinner 
with  Mr.  Bancroft — Thale — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — "  Unde- 
signed coincidences"  —  "Table  talk"  —  Plans  for  the  winter  — 
Bismarck's  achievements — United  Germany — Letter  to  Archbishop 
Trench,  thanking  him  for  his  work  on  the  Thirty  Years'  War — 
Visit  of  the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands  to  Frampton  Court — Mr. 
Sumner — Prospects  of  General  Grant's  election  .  .  •  .  .  319 


CHAPTER  XI. 

LAST   YEARS. 

Bournemouth— Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Great  fire  in  Boston  and 
its  consequences—'  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table ' — Bournemouth 
and  its  climate — Sir  Percy  Shelley — Boscombe  House — Relics  of 
Shelley — Burial  of  Lord  Lytton  in  Westminster  Abbey — Visit  to 
Poltimore  Park— Asking  for  advice — Mr.  Motley's  illness — Desire 
to  go  to  America— Visit  to  Mentmore — Letter  to  Baroness  Meyer 
de  Rothschild — Miss  Thackeray — Education  in  Massachusetts — 
Return  to  London — Hatfield  and  its  archives — Panshanger — Ball  at 
Grosvenor  House— Improved  health— Work  on « Barneveld's  Life '— 


CONTENTS  ix 


Chiswick — The  Shah — Dinner  with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Argyll — Various  entertainments — Fete  at  Northumberland  House 
— The  Prince  of  Wales — The  emancipated  slave  singers — Progress 
of  the  'Life  of  Barneveld'  —  Letter  from  Dean  Stanley — Fresh 
attack  of  illness — Publication  of  the  '  Life  of  John  van  Olden 
Barneveld'  —  Letter  from  Dean  Stanley  —  Cannes  —  Letter  to 
Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Account  of  Mr.  Motley's  illness — Death  of 
Mr.  Sumner  —  Letter  from  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes  —  Boston  gossip 
— Mrs.  Agassiz — Literary  work — Birth  of  a  grandson — Naworth 
Castle  —  Death  of  Mrs.  Motley  —  Letters  to  Baroness  Meyer  de 
Rothschild  and  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— Letter  from  Mr.  Carlyle 
— Letter  to  Mrs.  W.  W.  Wadsworth — Plans  for  the  future — Letter 
from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — The  monotony  of  lecturing — Friendship 
and  sorrow — Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Failing  powers — Mr. 
Dana's  nomination — Mr.  Motley  elected  a  Member  of  the  Institute 
of  France — Visit  to  the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands — Huis  ten  Bosch 
— Visit  to  Allenheads — Letter  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll — The 
Eastern  Question — Letter  to  Dean  Stanley  on  Vol.  III.  of  the  '  His- 
tory of  the  Jewish  Church' — London  in  winter — Lady  Marian 
Alford — Hengler's  Circus — The  Eastern  Question — Sir  William 
Harcourt's  speech — Letter  to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes — Marriage  of  Lady 
Vernon  Harcourt  in  Westminster  Abbey — The  Turco-Russian  War 
— Princess  Louise  and  the  Marquis  of  Lome — Letter  from  Dr.  0. 
W.  Holmes — Reverence  for  the  past — Death  of  Mr.  Turner-Sargent 
—Letter  to  Mr.  H.  Cabot  Lodge — Death  of  Admiral  Davis — Letter 
to  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes  on  the  death  of  his  son-in-law  and  of  Turner- 
Sargent — English  politics — The  Eastern  Question — Visits  to  the 
Duke  of  Somerset  at  Bulstrode  and  to  Mr.  Le  Strange  at  Hunstanton 
— Miss  Martineau's  Autobiography — Kingston  Russell — Rumours 
of  war  between  England  and  Russia — Extract  from  Dean  Stanley's 
sermon — Conclusion  .  .  .  .  366 


VOL.  11. 


LETTEES 

OP 

JOHN    LOTHEOP    MOTLEY, 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   CIVIL  WAK   IN  AMERICA. 

Mr.  Motley  returns  to  America — The  war — Boston  society — Remembrances  to 
friends  in  England — The  Northern  army — Its  numbers  and  quality — Depar- 
ture of  the  Gordon  Regiment  for  the  seat  of  war — The  "  Mercenaries  " — 
"  The  North  is  a  unit  " — Death  of  Mrs.  Longfellow — Objects  and  prospects 
of  the  war — The  commanders — McClellan — McDowell — Patterson — John- 
ston— Butler — Rumours  of  engagements — Lord  Lyndhurst  on  Mr.  Motley's 
letter — "  Commencement "  at  Harvard  University — Reception  of  General 
Scott's  name — Skirmish  of  July  18th — Converging  on  Manassas — A  review 
at  Boston — Lieutenant  Brownell — Battle  of  Bull's  Run — First  rumours — 
News  of  the  defeat — Lord  J.  Russell's  letter — The  essence  of  the  Union — 
•Cause  of  defeat  at  Bull's  Run — The  war  was  inevitable — Josiah  Quincy — 
Longfellow — Holmes — "  Tom  Brown  " — Incidents  of  the  battle — Mr.  Motley 
appointed  United  States  Minister  to  Austria — The  Duke  of  Argyll  on  the 
feeling  of  England. 

To  his  Wife. 

Boston, 
July  1st,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — This  is  only  a  note,  because  I  would 
not  let  the  steamer  from  New  York  of  day  after  to-morrow 
go  without  a  greeting  from  me.  There  is  absolutely  nothing 
new  in  the  political  world  since  I  wrote  last.  By  the  way, 
by  the  mid-week  steamer  I  sent  rather  a  lengthy  epistle  to 
the  Duke  of  Argyll,  which  I  hope  that  he  will  pardon  in  two 
respects — first,  its  unconscionable  length,  and  secondly,  for 
talking  very  plainly  about  the  state  of  public  feeling  here. 
I  felt  that  I  could  not  pay  a  higher  compliment  to  his 
intellect  and  his  candour  than  to  make  a  kind  of  general 
statement,  without  mincing  matters. 

VOL.  II.  B 


2  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  I. 

I  told  Lord  Lyons  in  Washington  that  I  had  appointed 
myself  a  peace  commissioner  between  the  two  countries,  and 
meant  to  discharge  my  duties  to  the  fullest  extent,  and  in 
that  vein  I  had  spoken  to  the  President,  to  Seward,  Chase, 
Blair,  and  Bates,  and  to  every  other  personage,  private  or 
public,  with  whom  I  came  in  contact.  Of  course  I  only 
said  this  in  jest— for  I  have  no  idea  of  exaggerating  my 
humble  individuality — but  he  was  kind  enough  to  say  that 
he  thought  I  might  do  much  good. 

I  think,  however,  that  the  day  for  talk  is  gone  by — England 
had  made  up  its  mind  that  we  had  gone  to  pieces.  When 
she  learns,  what  we  are  thoroughly  convinced  of  here,  that 
the  United  States  Government  is  invincible,  and  that  this 
insurrection  is  to  be  quelled — as  it  will  be  within  a  year — she 
will  cease  to  talk  of  Northern  and  Southern  States,  and  will 
find  out  that  the  Great  Kepublic  is  still  existing  one  and 
indivisible.  Our  case  has  always  been  understated.  We 
have  a  good  cause,  and  no  intention  of  "  subjugation,"  which., 
like  the  ridiculous  words  secession  and  coercion,  has  been  de- 
vised to  affect  the  minds  of  the  vulgar — the  United  States 
Government  is  at  home  on  its  own  soil  in  every  State  from 
Maine  to  California,  and  is  about  asserting  the  rights  of 
property  and  dominion. 

General  Scott  says  .that  the  general  impatience  is  the 
greatest  obstacle  in  his  way,  but  he  is  a  cool  hand  and  a 
tried  one,  and  he  will  give  a  good  account  of  himself,  never 
fear.  The  rebels  never  dreamed  of  the  intense  feeling  of 
nationality  which  pervaded  the  Free  States.  They  thought 
to  have  a  united  South  and  a  divided  North,  they  find  exactly 
the  reverse.  Slavery  will  be  never  extended,  and  the  United 
States  Government  will  survive  this  crisis  and  be  stronger 
than  ever.  Pray  give  my  kindest  regards  to  Lord  Lyndhurst 
and  her  Ladyship,  say  that  I  mean  to  have  the  pleasure  of 
writing  to  him  very  soon.  Mrs.  Greene  is  very  well ;  I  have 
a  kind  note  from  Miss  Sarah  Greene,  asking  me  to  dine  to- 
morrow, and  I  shall  do  so  if  I  can  get  up  from  Nahant.  I 
go  there  now;  my  mother  is  already  better  for  the  sea  air. 
I  have  received  all  your  letters  up  to  12th  of  June.  They 


1861.]  BOSTON   SOCIETY. 

are  most  delightful  to  me,  and  I  have  read  them  all  again 
and  again.  The  family  of  course  have  seen  them,  and  I  lent 
them  to  the  Lodges  and  Mr.  Cabot.  They  go  to  Newport 
to-day — what  an  awful  disappointment  to  me !  The  first 
summer  that  they  have  not  been  at  Nahant  for  so  many 
years  is  the  one  I  am  passing  there. 

While  I  am  writing,  Copley  Greene  and  James  Amory  have 
been  here ;  Amory  showed  me  a  note  from  Lord  Lyndhurst. 
I  have  also  seen  Miss  Greene,  and  agreed  to  dine  with  her 
mother  next  week  instead  of  this.  Saturday  we  had  a  delight- 
ful club  dinner.  Agassiz,  who  was  as  delightful  as  ever,  and 
full  of  the  kindest  expressions  of  appreciation  and  affection 
for  Lily,  and  Holmes,  who  is  absolutely  unchanged,  which  is 
the  very  highest  praise  that  could  be  given — Lowell,  Pierce, 
Tom  Appleton,  Dana,  Longfellow,  Whipple.  There  were  three 
absent,  Felton,  Emerson,  and  Hawthorne,  and  it  says  some- 
thing for  a  club  in  which  three  such  vacancies  don't  make 
a  desolation. 

Nahant. — I  am  finishing  this  note  to-night  at  N 's,  as  I 

must  send  it  by  to-morrow's  early  boat.  My  mother  is  looking 
better  than  usual.  I  have  been  on  the  Agassiz's  Piazza  just 
now.  He  was  not  there,  but  will  come  to-morrow.  Mrs.  Agassiz 
and  Mrs.  Felton  all  looked  very  natural  and  nice  and  gentle, 
and  had  a  thousand  kind  things  to  say  of  you  and  Lily. 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Us  Wife. 

Boston, 
July  7th,  1861. 

MY  DEAKEST  MARY,— I  can't  tell  you  how  much  delight 
your  letters  give  me 

Seyd  umschlungen  millionen  !  You  must  give  my  kindest 
regards  to  dear  Mrs.  Norton,  to  Lady  Dufferin — if  you  are  so 
fortunate  as  to  see  her,  which  seems  too  great  a  privilege  ever 
really  to  come  within  your  reach — to  Lady  Palmerston  and 

Lord  Palmerston,  to  the  adorable  Lady and  Lord , 

B  2 


4  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  i. 

to  Milnes,  Stirling,  Forster,  to  dear  Lady  William,  with,  my 
most  sincere  wishes  for  her  restoration  to  health.  Tell  her 
I  should  give  myself  the  pleasure  of  writing  to  her,  but  my 
whole  mind  is  absorbed  with  American  affairs  and  I  know 
that  they  bore  her  inexpressibly,  and  I  could  write  of  nothing 
else.  Don't  forget  my  kind  regards  to  Arthur  and  to  Odo  if 
he  comes.  If  you  see  Lady  John  Eussell  and  Lord  John, 
I  wish  you  would  present  my  best  compliments,  and  say  that 
I  have  been  and  am  doing  everything  within  my  humble 
means  to  suppress  the  noble  rage  of  our  countrymen  in  regard 
to  the  English  indifference  to  our  cause ,  and  that  I  hope  par- 
tially to  have  succeeded.  At  any  rate  there  is  a  better  feeling 
and  less  bluster ;  but,  alas  and  alas  !  there  will  never  in  our 
generation  be  the  cordial,  warm-hearted,  expansive  sentiment 
towards  England  which  existed  a  year  ago.  Yet  no  one  is 
mad  enough  not  to  wish  for  peaceful  relations  between  the 
countries,  and  few  can  doubt  that  a  war  at  this  moment  would 
be  for  us  a  calamity  too  awful  to  contemplate.  Pray  give  my 
kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Stanley — it  was  so  kind  of  her  to  ask 
you  to  so  pleasant  a  party  as  you  mention.  I  hope  you  took 
the  responsibility  of  remembering  me  to  Froude  ;  and  indeed  I 
wish  really  that  you  would  say  to  all  our  friends  individually 
when  you  see  them,  that  I  beg  my  remembrances  in  each 
letter.  There  is  no  need  of  my  specifying  their  names,  as  you 
see  now  that  I  have  got  to  my  third  page  and  have  not  men- 
tioned one-third.  Vivent  nos  amis  les  ennemis,  and  so  I  give  my 
kind  regards  to  Delane.  I  wish  he  wasn't  such  a  good  fellow, 
and  that  I  didn't  like  him  so  well,  for  the  Times  has  played 
the  very  devil  with  our  international  relations,  and  if  there  is 
one  thing  I  have  ever  set  my  heart  upon  it  is  the  entente  cor- 
diale  between  America  and  England.  Give  my  kind  regards 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sheridan. 

It  never  occurs  to  me  that  any  one  can  doubt  the 

warmth  of  my  feelings  towards  England,  and  so  when  I  try  to 
picture  the  condition  here  it  is  that  my  friends  in  England  may 
see  with  my  eyes,  which  must  be  of  necessity  quicker  to  under- 
stand our  national  humours  than  those  of  any  Englishman  can 
be.  Give  my  regards  to  Parker,  to  whom  I  daresay  you  read 


1861.]  THE   NORTHERN   ARMY.  5 

portions  of  my  letters.  Pray  don't  forget  to  present  my  most 
particular  regards  to  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  I  hope  it  may  have 
occurred  to  you  to  send  him  some  of  my  letters,  as  I  can't 
help  thinking  that  it  would  interest  him  to  have  private  infor- 
mation about  our  affairs,  which,  so  far  as  it  goes,  can  at  least 
be  relied  upon.  Don't  forget  my  kind  regards  to  Layard  and 
to  the  dear  Dean  of  St.  Paul's  and  Mrs.  Milman,  and  to  those 
kindest  of  friends,  Lord  and  Lady  Stanhope,  and  also  to  the 
Keeves.  As  for  my  true  friend  Murray,  I  am  ashamed  not 
to  have  written  him  a  line ;  but  tell  him,  with  my  best  regards 
to  him  and  Mrs.  M.,  that  I  have  scarcely  written  to  any  one 
but  you.  If  you  see  him  tell  him  what  I  think  of  our  politics. 
It  will  distress  his  bigoted  Tory  heart  to  think  that  the  great 
Kepublic  has  not  really  gone  to  pieces ;  but  he  must  make  up 
his  mind  to  it,  and  so  must  Sir  John  Eamsden.  The  only 
bubble  that  will  surely  burst  is  the  secession  bubble.  A 
government  that  can  put  250,000  men  in  the  field  within  ten 
weeks,  and  well-armed,  officered,  and  uniformed,  and  for  the 
time  well  drilled,  may  still  be  considered  a  nation.  You  see 
that.  Abraham  asks  Congress  for  400,000  soldiers  and  400 
millions  of  dollars,  and  he  will  have  every  man  and  every 
dollar. 

But  before  I  plunge  into  politics,  let  me  stick  to  private 
matters  for  a  little.  If  I  have  omitted  any  names  in  my 
greetings,  supply  them  and  consider  them  as  said.  I  write  to 
scarcely  any  one  but  you,  and  then  to  such  as  I  know  are 
sincerely  interested  in  American  affairs.  To-day  I  send  a 
letter  to  Lord  Lyndhurst,  a  long  one,  and  I  am  awfully  afraid 
that  it  will  bore  him,  for  unluckily  I  haven't  the  talent  of 
Sam  Weller  to  make  my  correspondent  wish  I  had  said  more, 
which  is  the  great  secret  of  letter-writing. 

McClellan  and  Lyon  and  Mansfield  and  McDowell  and  a 
host  of  others,  all  thoroughly  educated  soldiers  with  large  ex- 
perience, to  say  nothing  of  old  Scott,  whose  very  name  is  worth 
50,000  men,  are  fully  a  match  for  Jeff,  and  Beauregard,  able 
men  as  they  unquestionably  are.  Then  as  to  troops,  I  wish 
those  who  talk  about  Northern  mercenaries,  all  Irish  and  Ger- 
man, and  so  on,  could  take  a  look  at  the  Khode  Islanders,  at  the 


6  MOTLEY'S   LETTEES.  [CHAP.  I. 

Green  Mountain  boys  from  Vermont,  at  the  gigantic  fellows 
from  Maine,  whose  magnificent  volunteers  excite  universal 
applause,  at  the  Massachusetts  fellows,  who  can  turn  their  hands 
to  anything,  at  the  50,000  men  from  the  "Empire  State," 
already  marched  forward  and  equipped  like  regulars,  and  so 
on  to  Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  etc. 
I  thought  before  I  came  home  that  there  was  some  exaggera- 
tion in  the  accounts  we  received  ;  but  the  state  of  things  can't 
be  exaggerated.  I  never  felt  so  proud  of  my  country  as  I  do 
at  this  moment.  It  was  thought  a  weak  government  because 
it  was  forbearing.  I  should  like  to  know  how  many  strong 
governments  can  stamp  on  the  earth  and  produce  250,000 — the 
officially  stated  number  of  fighting  men — almost  at  a  breath  ; 
and  there  was  never  in  history  a  nobler  cause  or  a  more  heroic 
spectacle  than  this  unanimous  uprising  of  a  great  people  to 
defend  the  benignant  government  of  their  choice  against  a 
wanton  pro-slavery  rebellion  which  had  thought  the  country 
cowardly  because  she  had  been  forbearing  and  gentle.  A 
whole  people,  22,000,000,  laying  aside  all  party  feeling,  stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder  to  protect  this  western  continent,  the 
home  of  freemen,  from  anarchy,  perpetual  warfare,  and  the 
universal  spread  of  African  slavery.  But  for  this  levy  of 
bucklers  the  Great  Republic  would  have  been  Mexico  and 
Alabama  combined.  Now  slavery  as  a  political  power  is 
dethroned,  it  can  never  spread  an  inch  on  this  continent,  and 
the  Eepublic  will  come  out  of  this  conflict  stronger  and 
more  respected  than  it  ever  was  before. 

Yesterday  was  a  painfully  interesting  day.  The  Gordon  re- 
giment— the  Massachusetts  2nd,  of  which  I  have  spoken  to  you 
so  often — took  its  departure  for  the  seat  of  war.  They  have 
been  in  camp  at  Brook  Farm  for  several  weeks,  and  I  have 
visited  them  often  and  have  learned  to  have  a  high  regard  for 
Gordon.  He  was  an  excellent  scholar  at  West  Point,  and  served 
with  distinction  in  the  Mexican  war.  Afterwards,  becoming 
tired  of  quarters  in  Oregon  and  such  wildernesses  in  the  piping 
times  of  peace,  he  left  the  profession  and  studied  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  law  in  Boston.  But,  on  the  breaking 
out  of  the  great  mutiny,  he  at  once  applied  for  leave  to  raise 


1861.]  THE  GORDON  REGIMENT.  7 

a  regiment.  His  lieutenant,  Colonel  Andrews,  is  also  a  West 
Point  man,  having  graduated  first  in  his  class.  Wilder  D  wight, 
whom  you  knew  in  Florence,  is  major,  and  a  most  efficient, 
energetic,  intelligent  fellow  he  is 

Well,  a  telegram  came  on  Saturday  evening  last,  signed 
Winfield  Scott,  ordering  the  second  to  move  forward  at  once 
to  help  reinforce  General  Patterson  in  Martinsburg,  Virginia. 
Patterson  is  expecting  daily  an  engagement  with  Johnston, 
one  of  the  best  of  the  rebel  generals,  who  commands  some 
20,000  men  within  a  few  miles  of  Martinsburg,  so  that  the 
second  regiment  is  going  straight  to  glory  or  the  grave.  It 
was  this  that  made  the  sight  so  interesting.  It  is  no  child's 
play,  no  holiday  soldiering,  which  lies  before  them,  but  pro- 
bably, unless  all  the  rebel  talk  is  mere  fustian,  as  savage  an 
encounter  as  men  ever  marched  to  meet.  Within  four  days 
they  will  be  on  the  sacred  soil  of  Virginia,  face  to  face  with 
the  enemy.  The  regiment  came  in  by  the  Providence  rail- 
road at  11  o'clock.  It  had  been  intended  that  they  should 
march  through  many  streets,  as  this  was  the  first  opportunity 
for  the  citizens  of  Boston  to  see  the  corps ;  but  the  day  was 
intensely  hot,  a  cloudless  sky  and  95°  of  Fahrenheit  in  the 
shade,  so  they  only  marched  along  Boylston,  Tremont,  up 
Beacon  Streets,  to  the  Common — very  wisely  changing  the 
programme.  They  made  a  noble  appearance :  the  uniform  is 
blue,  and  they  wore  the  army  regulation  hat,  which  I  think — 
although  Mr.  Kussell  does  not — very  becoming  with  its  black 
ostrich  plumes,  and  I  am  assured  that  it  is  very  convenient 
and  comfortable  in  all  weathers,  being  both  light,  supple,  and 
shady.  The  streets  were  thronged  to  cheer  them  and  give 
them  God-speed.  There  was  a  light  collation  spread  on  tables 
in  the  Beacon  Street  Mall,  and  I  walked  about  within  the  lines, 
with  many  other  friends,  to  give  the  officers  one  more  parting 
shake  of  the  hand.  There  were  many  partings  such  as  press 
the  life  from  out  the  heart. 

I  was  glad  that  M and  the  girls  were  not  there  ;  but  I 

saw  Mr.  and  Mrs.  D ,  Mrs.  Quincy,  and  many  other  wives 

and  mothers.  You  may  judge  of  the  general  depth  of  feeling 
when  even  Tom  D wouldn't  come  to  see  the  regiment  off 


8  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I, 

for  fear  of  making  a  fool  of  himself.  People  seemed  generally 
to  be  troubled  with  Lear's  hysterica  passio,  so  that  the  cheers, 
although  well-intentioned,  somehow  stuck  in  their  throats. 
The  regiment  got  to  the  cars  at  3  o'clock,  and  were  to  go  via 
Stonington  to  New  York,  and  soon  via  Chambersburg,  Penn., 
to  Williamsport,  Maryland,  and  Martinsburg.  We  shall  hear  of 
them  by  telegram,  and  I  hope  occasionally  to  get  a  line  from 
Gordon.  Oh,  how  I  wish  that  I  had  played  at  soldiers  when  I 
was  young,  wouldn't  I  have  applied  for  and  got  a  volunteer 
regiment  now !  But,  alas  !  at  forty-seven  it  is  too  late  to  learn 
the  first  elements,  and,  of  course,  I  could  not  be  a  subaltern 
among  young  men  of  twenty-two.  William  Greene — lucky 
fellow  ! — is  raising  a  regiment ;  he  was  educated  at  West  Pointy 
you  know,  and  served  in  the  Florida  war ;  and  Kaymond  Lee, 
also  a  West  Point  man,  is  raising  another  of  the  additional  ten 
regiments  offered  by  Massachusetts.  Young  Wendell  Holmes 
— who  by  the  way  is  a  poet  and  almost  as  much  a  man  of 
genius  as  his  father,  besides  being  one  of  the  best  scholars  of 
his  time — has  a  lieutenant's  commission  in  Lee's  regiment,  and 
so  on.  Are  you  answered  as  to  the  Irish  and  German  nature  of 
our  mercenaries  ? 

Nothing  decisive  has  yet  occurred.  The  skirmishes — out- 
post affairs,  and  which  have  furnished  food  for  telegrams  and 
pictures  for  the  illustrated  newspapers— are  all  of  no  conse- 
quence as  to  the  general  result.  Don't  be  cast  down  either  if 
you  near  of  a  few  reverses  at  first.  I  don't  expect  them ;  but> 
whether  we  experience  them  or  not,  nothing  can  prevent  our 
ultimate  triumph  and  a  complete  restoration  of  the  Union. 
Of  this  I  feel  very  confident.  I  don't  like  to  prophesy — a  man 
always  makes  an  ass  of  himself  by  affecting  to  read  the  future 
— yet  I  will  venture  one  prediction — that  before  eighteen 
months  have  passed  away  the  uprising  of  a  great  Union  party 
in  the  South  will  take  the  world  so  much  by  surprise  as  did  so- 
recently  the  unanimous  rising  of  the  North.  For  example, 
only  a  very  few  months  ago,  the  Confederate  flag  was  to  wave 
over  Washington  before  May  1st,  and  over  Faneuil  Hall  before 
the  end  of  this  year ;  there  was  to  be  a  secession  party  in  every 
northern  state,  and  blood  was  to  flow  from  internecine  combats 


1861.]  "THE  NOETH  A  UNIT." 

in  every  northern  town.  Now  Washington  is  as  safe  as  London; 
the  North  is  a  unit,  every  Northern  town  is  as  quiet  and  good- 
natured,  although  sending  forth  regiment  after  regiment  to  a 
contest  far  away  from  home,  as  it  was  five  years  ago ;  while 
Virginia  is  the  scene  of  civil  war  —  one  Virginia  sending 
senators  and  representatives  to  Washington,  while  another 
Virginia  sends  its  deputies  to  Jeff.  Davis's  wandering  capital, 
and  the  great  battle-field  of  North  and  South  will  be  on  the 

"  sacred  soil."     I  feel  truly  sorry  for  such  men  as  C ; 

there  could  not  be  a  man  more  amiable  or  thorough  gentleman 
than  he  seemed  to  be  on  our  brief  acquaintance.  But  rely 
upon  it,  that  Abraham  is  a  straightforward,  ingenuous,  coura- 
geous backwoodsman,  who  will  play  his  part  manfully  and 
wisely  in  this  great  drama. 

The  other  day  I  dined  with  Mr.  Palfrey.  It  was  a  very 
pleasant  little  dinner,  and  besides  Frank  and  the  daughters, 
there  were  Holmes,  Lowell,  and  John  Adams.  Frank  Palfrey 
is  lieutenant-colonel  in  William  Greene's  regiment ;  Mr.  Pal- 
frey's other  son,  John,  is  a  lieutenant  in  the  regular  army,  and 
I  am  truly  sorry  to  hear  to-day  that  he  has  just  come  home  from 
Fortress  Monroe  with  typhoid  fever.  I  am  just  going  down 
to  inquire  after  him.  Lowell  and  Holmes  were  as  delightful 
as  ever.  I  liked  John  Adams  very  much  indeed  ;  he  seemed 
to  me  very  manly,  intelligent,  and  cultivated,  and  very  good- 
looking.  He  was  kind  enough  to  ask  me  to  come  down  to 
Quincy  to  dine  and  pass  the  night,  and  I  certainly  shall  do  so, 
for,  besides  wishing  to  see  the  ancient  abode  of  the  Adamses,  I 
must  go  and  see  the  venerable  Mr.  Quincy,  who  has  kindly 
sent  for  me  once  or  twice.  By  the  way,  remember  me  kindly 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Adams,  whenever  you  see  them.  I  hear  that 
they  speak  of  you  in  all  their  letters  in  the  most  friendly  and 

agreeable  manner 

Ever  yours  affectionately, 

J.  L.  M. 


10  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 


To  Us  Wife. 

Nahant, 
July  llth,  1861. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, — I  write  you  this  line  only  to  tell  you 
of  a  most  dreadful  and  heart-rending  calamity  which  has 
thrown  this  community  into  mourning.  Mrs.  Longfellow  was 
burned  to  death  the  day  before  yesterday.  She  was  making 
seals  for  the  amusement  of  her  younger  children  in  her  house 
at  Cambridge,  when  the  upper  part  of  her  thin  muslin  dress 
caught  fire,  and  in  an  instant  she  was  all  in  flames.  Long- 
fellow was  in  the  next  room.  Hearing  the  shrieks  of  the 
children,  he  flew  to  her  assistance,  and  seizing  a  rug  held  it 
around  her,  and  although  she  broke  away  from  him,  attempting 
to  run  from  the  danger — as  persons  in  such  cases  seem  invari- 
ably to  do — he  succeeded  at  last  in  extinguishing  the  fire,  but 
not  until  she  was  fatally  injured.  She  lingered  through  the 
night,  attended  by  several  physicians,  and  expired  yesterday 
forenoon  about  half-past  ten,  June  10th.  I  understand  that, 
through  the  influence  of  ether,  her  sufferings  were  not  very 
intense  after  the  immediate  catastrophe,  and  that  she  was  un- 
conscious for  a  good  while  before  she  died.  Longfellow  was 
severely  burned  in  the  hands,  but  not  dangerously ;  but  he 
too  has  been  kept  under  the  effects  of  ether,  and  is  spoken  of 
as  in  almost  a  raving  condition. 

I  have  not  had  the  heart  to  make  any  inquiries,  but  think 
that  on  Saturday  I  will  try  to  see  Mrs.  Appleton.  It  is 
not  more  than  five  or  six  days  since  I  was  calling  upon 
Mr.  Appleton,  who  has  so  long  been  dying  by  inches,  and  who 
will  look  less  like  death  than  he  does  now,  when  he  shall  have 

breathed  his  last.     F was    there,  and  greeted  me  most 

affectionately,  making  the  kindest  inquiries  after  you;  she 
never  looked  more  beautiful,  or  seemed  happier,  and  Long- 
fellow was,  as  he  always  is,  genial  and  kind  and  gentle.  I 
should  have  stayed  with  them  probably  during  Commence- 
ment week  at  Cambridge,  and  was  looking  forward  with  great 
pleasure  to  being  with  them  for  a  little  while.  There  is 
something  almost  too  terrible  to  reflect  upon  in  this  utterly 


1861.]  DEATH  OF  MRS.  LONGFELLOW.  11 

trivial  way  in  which  this  noble,  magnificent  woman  has  been 
put  to  a  hideous  death.  When  you  hear  of  a  shipwreck,  or  a 
stroke  of  lightning,  or  even  a  railway  accident,  the  mind  does 
not  shrink  appalled  from  the  contemplation  of  the  tragedy  so 
utterly  as  it  now  does,  from  finding  all  this  misery  resulting 
from  such  an  almost  invisible  cause — a  drop  of  sealing-wax  on 
a  muslin  dress.  Deaths  in  battle  are  telegraphed  to  us  hourly, 
and  hosts  of  our  young  men  are  marching  forth  to  mortal 
combat,  day  by  day,  but  these  are  in  the  natural  course  of 
events.  Fate,  acting  on  its  large  scale,  has  decreed  that  a 
great  war  shall  rage,  and  we  are  prepared  for  tragedies,  and 
we  know  that  those  who  fall  have  been  discharging  the  highest 
of  duties.  But  what  compensation  or  consolation  is  there  for 
such  a  calamity  as  this  ? 

I  was  with  Holmes  at  the  Parker  House  when  the  news  was 
brought  to  us.  We  had  gone  to  see  the  Greenes  (William), 
with  whom  we  were  speaking  in  the  hall.  Holmes  wanted  a 
commission  in  Greene's  regiment  for  his  son  Wendell  in  case 
he  finds  Lee's  list  completed.  We  both  burst  into  tears,  and 
did  nothing  more  that  morning  about  military  matters ; 
Holmes  is  however  going  out  to  see  Lee  to-morrow  morning 
at  his  camp  at  Eeadville,  and  will  doubtless  obtain  a  lieu- 
tenancy under  him  for  his  son.  Wendell  is  a  very  fine  fellow, 
graduating  this  commencement,  but  he  can't  be  kept  in 
college  any  longer.  He  will  get  his  degree,  and  is  one  of 
the  first  scholars  in  his  class,  but,  like  nearly  all  the  young 
men,  he  has  been  drilling  for  months  long  in  one  of  the 
various  preparatory  home  battalions,  and  is  quite  competent 
for  the  post  he  wishes ;  but  there  are  so  many  applicants  for 
these  commissions  that  even  such  a  conspicuous  youth  as  he 
is  not  sure  of  getting  one  immediately. 

God  bless  you,  dearest  Mary,  and  my  dear  children.  In 
great  haste. 

V  Affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


12  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  I. 

To  Us  Wife. 

Nahant, 
July  Utli,  1861. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — This  is  the  first  rainy  day  since  I 
landed  in  the  country,  now  nearly  five  weeks  ago.  It  has 
been  most  wondrously  bright  weather  day  after  day,  some- 
times very  hot,  but  as  it  can  never  be  too  hot  for  me  I  have 
been  well  satisfied.  I  was  so  glad  to  hear  of  Lady  Dufferin's 
safe  return,  and  I  do  hope  sincerely  that  the  Syrian  sun  has 
not  visited  her  too  roughly,  but  that  the  gentle  atmosphere  of 
an  English  summer  will  entirely  restore  her ;  what  a  comfort 
it  must  be  to  dear  Mrs.  Norton  to  have  them  safe  back  again. 

Alas !  during  all  my  pleasure  at  reading  your  letters  I 
could  not  throw  off  for  a  moment  the  dull,  deadly  horror  of 
the  calamity  of  which  I  wrote  to  you  in  my  last.  Yesterday 
I  went  out  to  Longfellow's  house,  by  especial  message  from 
Tom  Appleton,  to  attend  the  funeral ;  it  was  not  thus  that  I 
expected  for  the  first  time  after  so  long  an  absence  to  cross 
that  threshold.  The  very  morning  after  my  arrival  from 
England  I  found  Longfellow's  card,  in  my  absence,  with  a 
pencilled  request  to  come  out  and  sup  with  them,  Tom,  Mack- 
intosh, and  the  rest.  I  could  not  go,  but  have  been  several 
times  begged  to  come  since  that  day,  yet  this  is  the  first 

time  I  have  been  there.  I  am  glad  I  had  seen  F however. 

I  think  I  told  you  that  I  saw  her  a  few  days  ago,  at  the  chair 
of  her  dying  father ;  she  was  radiant  with  health  and  beauty, 
and  was  so  cordial  and  affectionate  in  her  welcome  to  me ;  I 
did  not  mean  to  look  at  her  in  her  coffin,  for  I  wished  to  pre- 
serve that  last  image  of  her  face,  undimmed.  But  after  the 
ceremony  at  the  house  the  cortege  went  to  Mount  Auburn,, 
and  there  was  a  brief  prayer  by  Dr.  Gannett  at  the  grave,  and 
it  so  happened  that  I  was  placed,  by  chance,  close  to  the 
coffin,  and  I  could  not  help  looking  upon  her  face;  it  was 
turned  a  little  on  one  side,  was  not  in  the  slightest  degree 
injured,  and  was  almost  as  beautiful  as  in  life—"  but  for  that 
sad  shrouded  eye" — and  you  remember  how  beautiful  were 
her  eyes.  Longfellow  has  as  yet  been  seen  by  no  one  except 


1861.]  OBJECTS  AND  PROSPECTS   OF   THE   WAR.  13 

his  sisters.  He  has  suffered  considerable  injury  in  the  hands, 
but  nothing  which  will  not  soon  be  remedied.  He  has  been  in 
an  almost  frenzied  condition,  at  times,  from  his  grief,  but  I 
hear  is  now  comparatively  composed ;  but  his  life  is  crushed 
I  should  think.  His  whole  character,  which  was  so  bright 
and  genial  and  sunny,  will  suffer  a  sad  change. 

....  We  were  expecting  the  Longfellows  down  here 
every  day.  Tom  and  he  own  together  the  old  Wetmore 
cottage,  and  they  were  just  opening  it  when  the  tragedy 
occurred.  I  still  think  it  probable  that  they  will  come,  for 
he  certainly  cannot  remain  in  his  own  house  now.  My  mother 
is  decidedly  gaining  strength  and  is  very  cheerful.  I  don't 
find  Mr.  Cabot  much  changed,  except  that  he  is  more  lame 
than  he  was.  They  have  invited  me  to  Newport,  and  so  has 
Mr.  Sears  and  Bancroft,  but  I  have  no  idea  of  going.  I 
have  hardly  time  to  see  as  much  of  my  friends  and  relations 
in  Boston  and  its  neighbourhood  as  I  wish. 

I  had  better  go  back,  I  think,  and  try  to  do  a  year's  hard 
work  in  the  diggings,  as  I  can  be  of  no  use  here,  and  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  me  to  go  on  with  my  work. 

....  Although  it  seems  so  very  difficult  for  the  English 
mind,  as  manifested  in  the  newspapers,  to  understand  the 
objects  of  the  war,  they  seem  to  twenty  millions  of  us  very 
plain — first,  to  prohibit  for  ever  the  extension  of  negro  slavery, 
and  to  crush  for  ever  the  doctrine  that  slavery  is  the  national, 
common  law  of  America,  instead  of  being  an  exceptional,  local 
institution  confined  within  express  limits  ;  secondly,  to  main- 
tain the  authority  of  the  National  Government,  as  our  only 
guarantee  for  life,  liberty,  and  civilization.  It  is  not  a  matter 
of  opinion,  but  of  profound,  inmost  conviction,  that  if  we  lose 
the  Union,  all  is  lost — anarchy  and  Mexicanism  will  be  sub- 
stituted for  the  temperate  reign  of  constitutional,  representa- 
tive government,  and  the  English  common  law.  Certainly, 
these  objects  are  respectable  ones,  and  it  is  my  belief  that 
they  will  be  attained.  If,  however,  the  war  assumes  larger 
proportions,  I  know  not  what  results  may  follow — but  this  I 
do  know,  that  slavery  will  never  gain  another  triumph  on  this 
continent. 


14  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

This  great  mutiny  was  founded  entirely  on  two  great 
postulates  or  hopes.  First,  the  conspirators  doubted  not  of  the 
assistance,  in  every  Free  State,  of  the  whole  democratic  party, 
who  they  thought  would  aid  them  in  their  onslaught  against 
the  constitution,  just  as  they  had  stood  by  them  at  the  polls 
in  a  constitutional  election.  Miserable  mistake  !  The  humilia- 
tion of  the  national  flag  at  Sumter  threw  the  whole  democratic 
party  into  a  frenzy  of  rage.  They  had  sustained  the  South 
for  the  sake  of  the  Union — for  the  love  of  the  G-reat  Kepublic. 
When  the  South  turned  against  the  national  empire,  and  fired 
against  the  flag,  there  was  an  end  of  party  differences  at  that 
instant  throughout  the  Free  States.  Secondly,  they  reckoned 
confidently  on  the  immediate  recognition  and  alliance  of 
England.  Another  mistake  !  And  so,  where  is  now  the 
support  of  the  mutiny  ?  Instead  of  a  disunited  North,  there 
is  a  distracted  South,  with  the  Free  States  a  unit.  There  is 
no  doubt  whatever,  that  the  conspirators  expected  confidently 
to  establish  their  new  constitution  over  the  whole  country 
except  New  England. 

I  find  the  numbers  of  United  States  troops  given  thus : 
General  Patterson's  command,  25,000  ;  General  McClellan, 
45,000  ;  General  McDowell,  45,000  ;  General  Butler,  20,000 ; 
total  135,000.  Certainly,  if  we  should  deduct  10  per  cent, 
from  this  estimate,  and  call  them  120,000,  we  should  not  be 
far  wrong.  McDowell  commands  opposite  Washington,  along 
Arlington,  at  Alexandria,  etc. ;  McClellan  is  at  this  moment  at 
Beverly,  and  Grafton  in  West  Virginia ;  Butler  is  at  and  near 
Fortress  Monroe.  Patterson  is  at  Martinsburg.  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  you  have  a  good  map  of  Virginia,  and  that 
you  study  it. 

Now  for  the  commanders.  McClellan  is  a  first-class  man. 
thirty-seven  years  of  age,  of  superior  West  Point  education, 
and  has  distinguished  himself  in  Mexico.  The  country  seems 
to  regard  him  as  the  probable  successor  to  Scott  in  its  affec- 
tions, when  he  shall  be  taken  from  us.  McDowell  is  a  good, 
practical,  professional  soldier,  fully  equal  to  his  work,  about 
forty  years  of  age.  Patterson  is  an  Irishman  by  birth,  age 
sixty-nine,  but  educated  here,  and  has  been  in  the  army  much 


1861.]  THE   NORTHERN   GENERALS.  15 

of  his  life,  having  served  both  in  the  war  of  1812  and  in 
Mexico,  and  he  commands  against  an  able  rebel — Johnston — 
who  is,  or  was,  at  Winchester  and  its  neighbourhood.  Butler 
is  the  militia  general  who  commanded  at  Annapolis,  for  a 
time,  in  the  first  outbreak,  and  has  since  been  made  major- 
general  in  the  army.  The  Gordon  regiment,  whose  departure 
from  Boston  I  mentioned  in  my  last,  are  now  at  Martinsburg, 
and  will  be  in  the  front  ranks  under  Patterson,  who  has  been 
perpetually  menaced  by  Johnston  with  a  general  attack.  The 
prevailing  impression  is,  however,  that  Johnston  will  fall 
back,  as  the  rebels  have  constantly  been  doing  ;  all  the  dash, 
impetuosity,  and  irrepressible  chivalry  on  their  part  have 
hitherto  only  manifested  themselves  on  paper. 

Don't  be  affected  by  any  sneers  or  insinuations  of  slowness 
against  Scott ;  I  believe  him  to  be  a  magnificent  soldier, 
thoroughly  equal  to  his  work,  and  I  trust  that  the  country 
and  the  world  will  one  day  acknowledge  that  he  has  played  a 
noble  and  winning  game  with  consummate  skill.  He  can  afford 
to  neglect  newspaper  criticism  at  present,  whether  cis-  or 
trans- Atlantic.  One  victory  at  least  he  has  achieved :  he  has  at 
last  reduced  the  lying  telegram  manufacturers  to  submission. 
Henceforth  you  may  read  our  newspaper  accounts  with  toler- 
able confidence.  Now,  look  at  the  map  of  Virginia,  and  you 
will  see  his  plan  so  far  as  developed.  You  read  the  American 
newspapers,  of  course,  which  I  ordered  for  you.  Yesterday 
and  to-day  bring  accounts  from  McClellan,  in  which  he  officially 
informs  Government  that  he  has  routed  and  annihilated  the 
rebels  in  West  Virginia.  Their  general  is  killed,  their  army 
broken  to  pieces.  One  colonel  (Pegram)  has  surrendered 
himself  and  his  whole  regiment.  McClellan  has  at  least  1000 
prisoners.  He  has  lost  very  few  men — the  rebels,  perhaps, 
200,  but  the  result  is  a  large  one.  I  am  sure  no  one  wishes 
to  hear  a  long  list  of  killed  and  wounded  on  either  side.  What 
Scott  wishes  is  to  demoralise  and  disorganise  this  senseless 
and  wanton  rebellion,  and  to  crush  its  leaders.  Now,  these 
10,000  just  routed  by  McClellan  compose  the  main  force  by 
which  the  counter-revolution  of  West  Virginia  was  to  be  pre- 
vented. There  is  another  force  in  the  South- West,  on  the 


1G  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

Kanawha,  under  the  redoubtable  Wise,  whose  retreat  you  will 
soon  hear  of.  You  will  also,  I  think,  soon  find  that  Johnston 
has  fallen  back  from  Winchester.  Thus  the  rebels  will  soon 
be  squeezed  down  towards  Eichmond.  There,  I  suppose,  they 
must  make  a  stand,  and  there  will,  perhaps,  be  a  great  battle. 
Hitherto,  'however,  they  have  shown  no  avidity  for  such  a 
result.  Virginia  is  the  battle-ground  for  the  summer. 


Lord  Lyndhurst  to  Mrs.  Motley. 

George  Street, 

July  16th,  1861. 

I  have  just  finished  Mr.  Motley's  very  interesting  letter, 
and  feel  most  grateful  for  his  endeavours  to  soothe  the  irri- 
tation existing  in  the  Northern  States  towards  this  country. 
I  hope  when  you  write  you  will  remember  me  kindly  to  him. 
Accept  my  best  thanks  for  the  communication,  from  which  I 
have  derived  a  much  better  account  of  the  state  of  affairs  on 
the  other  side  of  the  water  than  from  all  the  channels  of 
information  to  which  I  have  from  time  to  time  had  access. 
I  remain,  my  dear  Mrs.  Motley, 

Most  faithfully  yours, 

LYNDHURST. 


To  his  Wife. 

Woodland  Hill, 
Sunday/,  July  2Ist,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  have  not  the  time  nor  the  matter 
for  anything  but  a  hasty  line.  I  am  obliged  to  write  two  days 
before  the  packet  day,  as  I  must  go  to  Nahant  to-morrow, 
Monday,  and  the  next  day  I  have  promised  to  dine  with  old 
Mr.  Quincy,  at  Quincy.  I  came  up  yesterday  to  dine  with 
Mr.  George  Curtis  and  his  wife,  Ticknor,  Everett,  and  Felton. 
You  will  see  in  the  Daily  Advertiser  the  proceedings  of  one  or 
two  public  bodies  by  whom  respectful  tribute  has  been  paid  to 
Mr.  Appleton's  character.  His  mind  was  singularly  calm  and 


1861.]  "COMMENCEMENT"   AT  HARVARD.  17 

lucid  to  the  last.  On  Wednesday  I  went  to  Cambridge,  by 
invitation,  to  hear  the  exercises  of  Commencement  and  to  be 
present  at  the  dinner.  The  performances  were  very  creditable 
indeed,  and  I  found  at  the  dinner,  at  which  there  were  some 
three  hundred  of  the  alumni  present,  several  members  of  my 
class,  and  passed  a  very  pleasant  hour,  the  more  so  as  Felton 
had  faithfully  promised  me  that  I  should  not  be  call  ed  out  for 
a  speech.  As  I  have  received  an  LL.D.  at  the  previous  Com- 
mencement in  my  absence,  I  could  hardly  refuse  the  invitation 
to  the  dinner.  But  two  degrees  of  LL.D.  were  conferred  on 
this  occasion — one  on  Governor  Andrew,  and  the  other  on 
General  Scott.  The  announcement,  which  was  made  on  the 
platform  in  the  church,  after  the  conclusion  of  the  college 
exercises,  of  the  Governor's  name  was  very  well  received,  and 
there  was  much  well-deserved  cheering,  for  he  has  been  most 
efficient  and  intelligent  in  his  exertions,  ever  since  this 
damnable  mutiny  broke  out,  and  it  is  much  owing  to  his 
energy  that  Massachusetts  has  taken  the  noble  stand  which 
she  now  occupies,  in  defence  of  the  constitution  and  the 
country. 

But  when  the  name  of  Winfield  Scott  was  announced,  there 
arose  a  tempest  of  cheers  such  as  I  am  sure  was  never  heard 
before  at  any  academic  celebration  in  Cambridge.  I  thought 
the  church  would  have  split  to  pieces  like  a  bomb-shell,  so 
irrepressible  was  the  explosion  of  enthusiasm.  'Tis  a  pity  the 
old  man  couldn't  have  heard  it  with  his  own  ears.  He  is  used 
to  huzzahs  from  soldiers  and  politicians ;  but  here  were  grave 
professors  and  clergymen,  judges,  young  undergraduates  and 
octogenarians,  all  hallooing  like  lunatics.  And  the  same  thing 
was  repeated  at  the  dinner  when  his  health  was  drunk.  You 
will  see  an  account  of  the  proceedings  in  the  Daily  Advertiser 

of  the  18th  of  July You  will  also  observe  that  I  was 

startled  from  my  repose  at  the  table,  not  by  Felton,  but  by 
Everett,  who  made  a  most  complimentary  allusion  to  me,  far 
beyond  my  deserts,  in  his  after-dinner  speech.  They  insisted 
on  my  getting  up  and  saying  a  few  words  of  acknowledgment ; 
but  I  was  too  much  moved  to  make  a  speech,  and  they  received 
my  thanks  with  much  cordiality. 

VOL.  ii.  c 


18  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

Nothing  can  be  better  than  Everett's  speech  at  New  York — 
one  of  the  most  powerful  commentaries  on  this  rebellion  that 
has  ever  been  spoken  or  written — and  he  has  made  several 
other  addresses  equally  strong  in  tone.  We  are  now  in  an  era 
of  good  feeling  throughout  the  North,  and  we  no  longer  ask 
what  position  any  man  may  have  occupied,  but  where  he  stands 
now,  and  I  am  glad  that  we  shall  henceforth  have  the  benefit 
of  Everett's  genius  and  eloquence  on  the  right  side. 

Since  I  wrote  last  nothing  very  important  has  occurred  ;  but 
now  important  events  are  fast  approaching.  I  don't  use  this 
expression  in  the  stereotype  phraseology  of  the  newspapers, 
because  you  must  have  perceived  from  all  my  letters  that  I 
did  not  in  the  least  share  the  impatience  of  many  people  here. 

The  skirmish  of  the  18th  was  by  detachments,  only  800 
men  in  all,  of  Tyler's  Brigade,  commanded  by  him  in  person, 
and  they  are  said  to  have  behaved  with  great  skill  and 
gallantry.  It  is  your  old  friend  Daniel  Tyler  of  Norwich,  who, 
you  know,  was  for  a  considerable  part  of  his  life  in  the  army, 
and  was  educated  at  West  Point.  He  is  now  a  brigadier- 
general,  and,  as  you  see,  commands  under  McDowell,  whom  I 
described  to  you  in  my  last.  Montgomery  Kitchie,  by  the  way, 
is  aide  to  a  Colonel  Blenkef,  who  has  a  regiment  in  Tyler's 
Brigade,  and  James  Wadsworth  is  aide  to  McDowell.  The 
affair  at  Bull's  Kun  is  of  no  special  importance — of  course  we 
don't  know  what  losses  the  rebels  sustained,  nor  is  it  material. 
These  skirmishes  must  occur  daily,  until  it  appears  whether 
the  enemy  means  to  risk  a  pitched  battle  now,  or  whether  they 
mean  to  continue  to  retire,  as  they  have  hitherto  been  steadily 
doing,  before  the  advance  of  the  Union  forces.  The  question 
now  is,  will  they  make  a  stand  at  Manassas,  or  will  they  retreat 
to  Richmond  ?  Beauregard,  who  commands  at  Manassas,  is 
supposed  to  have  at  least  60,000  men,  and  Johnston,  who  was 
until  two  days  ago  at  Winchester,  is  thought  to  be  falling  back 
to  join  him.  On  the  other  hand,  while  McDowell  is  advancing 
towards  Manassas,  Patterson,  with  35,000  men  (with  whom  is 
Gordon's  regiment,  Massachusetts  2nd),  has  moved  from 
Martinsburg  to  Charlestown,  and,  as  I  thought,  will  soon  make 
a,  junction  with  him,  and  McClellan  is  expected  daily  out  of 


1861.]  CONVEKGIXG  OX  MANASSAS.  19 

West  Virginia.  Thus,  some  120,000  Union  troops  are  converg- 
ing at  Manassas,  and,  if  the  rebels  have  sufficient  appetite, 
there  will  soon  be  a  great  stand-up  fight. 

If  they  retreat,  however,  there  will  be  more  delays  and  more 
impatience,  for  it  is  obvious  that  the  Union  troops  can  gain 
no  great  victory  until  the  rebels  face  them  in  the  field.  This 
has  not  yet  been  the  case,  but  they  have  fired  from  behind  bat- 
teries occasionally  while  our  men  were  in  the  open.  Hitherto 
nothing  of  importance  has  occurred  except  the  slow  advance 
of  the  Union  and  the  slow  retreat  of  the  rebellion.  Perhaps 
before  this  letter  is  posted,  two  days  hence,  something  definite 
may  have  occurred  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Manassas.  Day 
before  yesterday  I  saw  the  Webster  regiment  reviewed  on  the 
common.  On  the  previous  afternoon  Governor  Andrew  had 
invited  me  to  come  to  his  room  at  the  State  House.  I  did  so 
at  the  time  appointed,  and  found  no  one  there  but  the  Governor, 
his  aides,  Colonels  Harrison  Kitchie,  Wetherell  and  Harry 
Lee,  and  Mr.  Everett,  who  was  to  make  a  speech  on  presenting 
the  colours  to  the  regiment.  I  saw  them  march  along  Beacon 
Street  in  front  of  the  State  House,  and  thought  they  had  a  very 
knowing  soldierly  look.  They  have  been  drilling  for  months 
down  at  Fort  Independence,  and  are  off  for  the  seat  of  war 
to-morrow. 

When  the  regiment  had  arrived  on  the  common  and  was 
drawn  up  in  the  Lower  Mall,  we  proceeded  to  review  them. 
Governor  Andrew,  in  his  cocked  hat  and  general's  uniform,  took 
possession  of  Mr.  Everett,  and  the  two  were  flanked  by  four 
aides-de-camp,  effulgent  in  what  the  newspapers  call  the  "  gor- 
geous panoply  of  war ;"  while  I  was  collared  by  the  Adjutant- 
General  and  the  stray  Colonel,  and  made  to  march  solemnly 
between  them.  What  the  populace  thought  of  me,  I  don't 
know,  but  I  believe  that  I  was  generally  supposed  to  be  a 
captured  Secessionist,  brought  along  to  grace  the  triumph  of 
the  Governor.  Well,  we  marched  on,  followed  by  a  battalion 
of  escort  Guards,  and  preceded  by  a  band  of  music  to  the  Mall, 
and  then  the  Webster  regiment  went  through  its  manoeuvres 
for  our  benefit,  and  that  of  some  thousands  of  enthusiastic 
spectators  besides. 

c2 


20  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I 

Of  course,  I  am  no  judge  of  military  matters,  but  they 
seemed  to  be  admirably  drilled,  and  one  or  two  army  officers 
with  whom  I  spoke  were  of  the  same  opinion — one  of  these,  by 
the  way,  was  a  Virginian,  Marshall  by  name,  a  staunch  Union 
man  and  nephew  of  the  General  Lee  of  Arlington,  who  so 
recently  abandoned  the  side  of  General  Scott  for  a  high  post  in 
the  rebel  army — but  I  am  at  least  a  judge  of  men's  appearance, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  thousand  better-looking  men 
with  more  determined  and  resolute  faces.  They  wear  the 
uniform  of  the  regular  army,  and  their  officers  are  nearly  all 
young,  vigorous  men,  of  good  education  and  social  position. 
I  had  a  little  talk  with  Fletcher  Webster,  who  seemed  de- 
lighted to  see  me.  Everett  made  a  magnificent  little  speech 
on  presenting  the  standard,  and  Webster  a  very  manly  and 
simple  reply.  The  standard  bears  for  inscription  the  motto- 
from  Webster's  (the  father's)  famous  speech :  "  Not  a  single 
stripe  polluted,  not  a  single  star  effaced,"  together  with  the 
motto  of  Massachusetts :  Ense  petit  placidam  sub  libertate 
quietem,  i.e.  "  With  the  sword  she  seeks  tranquillity  under  the 
protection  of  liberty."  This  has  been  the  device  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts seal  for  more  than  a  century,  I  believe ;  but  it  is 
originally  a  plagiarism  from  Algernon  Sidney. 

I  am  delighted  with  all  that  you  tell  me  of  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Argyll  and  their  warm  and  friendly  sympathy ;  of 
Lord  Granville ;  of  Lord  de  Grey  ;  of  Milnes  and  Forster  and 
Stirling.  I  haven't  time  to  mention  all  the  names  of  those 
whom  you  speak  of  as  being  staunch  in  our  cause — the  great 
cause  of  humanity  and  civilization — to  check  and  circumscribe 
African  slavery,  and  at  the  same  time  to  uphold  free  constitu- 
tional government  is  a  noble  task.  If  the  great  Kepublic 
perishes  in  the  effort  it  dies  in  a  good  cause.  But  it  isn't 
dying  yet ;  never  had  so  much  blood  in  it — Qui  vivra  verm. 

You  say  that  I  have  not  mentioned  Sumner  in  my  letters. 
I  thought  that  I  had.  I  saw  him  two  or  three  times  before  I 
went  to  Washington.  He  is  very  well  in  health  and  un- 
changed in  opinions  or  expectations,  except  that,  like  all  of  us> 
he  has  been  made  far  more  sanguine  than  ever  before,  as  to  the 
issue  of  the  struggle.  He  came  to  Washington  before  I  left 


1861.]  THE  BATTLE   OF  BULL'S   HUN.  21 

it,  but  we  did  not  go  together.  He  has  of  course  remained 
there  for  the  session.  I  have  heard  from  him  twice  or  thrice ; 
but,  as  I  now  write  from  America,  I  never  quote  any  one's 
opinions,  but  send  you  my  own  for  what  they  are  worth.  In 
this  letter  there  is  little  of  consequence. 

I   am   delighted  with  what  you   say  about  the    sea-coast 
arrangement  with   the   Hughes,  and  trust  sincerely  that  it 
may  be  made.     You  cannot  but  be  happy  with  such  charming, 
sincere,  and  noble  characters,  and  I  envy  you  the  privilege  of 
their  society.     Pray  thank  Hughes  for  that  most  sympathetic 
dedication  to  Lowell.     I  am  glad  that  the  book  is  finished, 
that  I  may  now  read  it  with  the  same  ^delight  which  the  first 
one  gave  me.     I  saw  Lowell  commencement  day,  and  promised 
to  go  out  and  dine  with  him  some  day  next  week.   He  is  going 
to  send  for  Hawthorne.     Alas  !  he  meant  to  have  had  Long- 
fellow.    We  shall  have  Holmes,  Agassiz,  and  others,  and  shall 
drink  Hughes's  health.     I  forgot  to  say  that  I  saw  at  Felton's 
house  young  Brownell  of  the  Ellsworth   Zouaves.     He,  you 
may  remember,  was  at  Ellsworth's  side  as  he  came  downstairs 
at  the  Marshall  House,  Alexandria,  and  was   shot  dead  by 
Jackson.     Brownell,  who  was  a  corporal  in  the  regiment,  im- 
mediately shot  Jackson  through  the  head.     He  has  since  been 
made  a  lieutenant  in  the  army,  and  is  here  on  recruiting 
service.     He  is  a  very  quiet,  good-looking   youth  of  about 
twenty-two.     The  deed  has  no  especial  claim  to  distinction, 
except  its  promptness.     You  remember  that  it  was  at  the  very 
first  occupation  of  Alexandria,  and  Jackson  supposed,  when  he 
came  out  of  a  dark  closet  and  fired  at  Ellsworth,  that  secession 
was  still  triumphant  in  the  town.     Brownell  took  out  of  his 
pocket  a  fragment  of  the  secession  flag-staff  which  Ellsworth 
had  just  taken  from  the  house-top,  and  gave  me  a  bit  of  it  as 
a  relic.     The  reason  why  Ellsworth]  was  so  anxious  to  pull 
down  the  flag,  was  that  it  was  visible  at  the  White  House  of 
Washington,  and  therefore  an  eyesore  to  the  President. 

Monday,  July  22nd. — The  battle  was  renewed  yesterday  at 
Bull's  Eun,  and,  as  I  anticipated  when  I  began  this  letter,  the 
rebel  batteries  have  been  carried,  one  after  another,  and  the 
enemy  beaten  back  to  Manassas.  A  general  engagement 


22  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

must  now  follow  at  once,  unless  they  retreat  towards  Kich- 
mond.  There  is  no  need  of  my  saying  anything  more,  because 
the  papers  will  give  you,  by  telegraph  to  Halifax,  later  intel- 
ligence than  I  can  possibly  send.  Perhaps  the  success  which 
I  now  chronicle  may  not  prove  to  be  authentic.  Yesterday 
Mr.  William  Dwight  came  over  to  Woodland  Hill,  and  read 
us  a  couple  of  spirited  letters  from  his  son  Wilder,  major  in  the 
Massachusetts  2nd.  It  appears,  as  you  will  see  in  the  papers, 
that  Patterson  has  been  superseded  by  Banks.  This  I  hardly 
understand.  Banks  has  great  talent,  and  has  generally  suc- 
ceeded in  everything  he  has  undertaken ;  but  he  is  not  an  army 
man,  and  has  had  no  experience  in  actual  service.  We  are 
still  in  the  dark  here,  as  to  the  important  fact,  whether  John- 
ston has  retired  from  Winchester  and  effected  his  junction 
with  Beauregard  at  Manassas,  or  whether  he  may  still  be  cut 
off  by  the  Patterson  Division  moving  from  Charlestown.  Of 
course  you  will  get  this  information  by  Thursday's  (25th) 
telegram  to  Halifax. 

To  their  great  disappointment,  no  doubt,  Gordon's  regiment 
has  been  detailed  from  the  column  to  which  it  belonged,  and 
has  been  sent  from   Charlestown  to  Harper's  Ferry.     It  is 
a  responsible   and    important   duty,  and  the   discipline  and 
energy  of  this  regiment  were  relied  upon  to  quell  all  seces- 
sion at  so  important   a  point  in   the   rear,  when  the   great 
advance  was   making   into  the   heart  of  Yirginia.      But   it 
is  a  great   sell  for  Gordon  and  his  comrades,  for  it  keeps 
them  for  a  time  at  a  distance  from  the  great  scene  of  action. 
Wilder  Dwight,  in  his  letter,  mentions  cases  in  which  the 
inhabitants  of  Martinsburg  and  its  vicinity  had   been  mal- 
treated by  the  rebel  army.     After  the  occupation  of  the  place 
by  the  Union  troops,  one  evening,  a  farmer  of  the  vicinity 
invited  Gordon  and  his  officers  to  supper.     He  said  the  rebels 
took  from  him  and  from  all  his  neighbours  everything  they 
wanted,  and  paid  nothing  for  them  except  receipts  in  the 
name  of  the  Confederacy — and  "  there  ain't  any  Confederacy,'* 
he   said.      At   Harper's   Ferry   he  makes   the   same   report. 
Women  come  in  and  tell  of  their  husbands  and  sons  having 
been  impressed.     Men  complain  of  being  driven  from  their 


1861.]  THE  BATTLE   OF  BULL'S  KUN.  23 

homes,  and  of  other  maltreatment.  And,  in  short,  you  have 
here,  from  an  unimpeachable  witness,  evidence  that,  even  in 
Eastern  Virginia,  the  very  hot-bed  of  secession,  the  rebellion 
is  not  over  popular,  and  that  the  stars  and  stripes  are  hailed, 
by  some  of  the  inhabitants  at  least,  as  the  symbols  of  deliver- 
ance from  a  reign  of  terror.  I  shall  leave  my  letter  open,  in 
order  to  add  a  P.S.  to-morrow. 

P.S.—July  23rd,  11.30  A.M. 

Bead  this  sheet  first. 

I  have  had  half  a  dozen  minds  about  sending  you  the  fore- 
going pages.  Since  they  were  written  the  terrible  defeat  of 
Sunday  evening  has  occurred.  We  are  for  the  moment  over- 
whelmed with  gloom.  I  pity  you  and  my  children  inexpres- 
sibly, to  be  alone  there.  On  the  whole,  I  have  decided  to 
send  my  letter  as  it  stands.  There  is  no  doubt  that  our  troops 
behaved  admirably  during  the  whole  of  Sunday;  that  they 
charged  and  carried  battery  after  battery  of  rifled  cannon ; 
that  the  colonels  of  regiments  led  on  their  men  on  foot,  rifle 
in  hand,  loading  and  firing  like  privates ;  that  our  men 
repeatedly  crossed  bayonets  with  the  enemy,  and  drove  them 
off  the  field.  This  went  on  for  nine  hours.  In  the  evening  it 
appears  that  Johnston  effected  his  junction  with  Beauregard, 
and  then  a  panic,  commenced  by  teamsters,  together  with 
reporters,  members  of  Congress,  and  outsiders  generally,  who 
had  no  business  on  the  field  at  all,  was  communicated  to  the 
troops,  who  fled  in  disorder.  The  accounts  are  very  conflicting 
as  to  the  behavour  of  our  men  after  seven  o'clock  P.M.  of 
Sunday. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  we  have  sustained  a  great  defeat. 
The  measure  of  our  dishonour,  which  I  thought  last  night  so 
great  as  to  make  me  hang  my  head  for  ever,  I  cannot  now 
thoroughly  estimate.  We  must  wait  for  the  official  reports, 
both  as  to  the  number  of  killed  and  wounded  (which  vary  for 
our  side  from  4000  to  200  !),  and  for  the  more  important  matter 
of  deciding  whether  we  have  been  utterly  disgraced  as  well  as 
defeated.  In  a  brief  note  which  I  wrote  early  this  morning  I 
told  you  that  I  should  send  for  you  to  come  home  imme- 
diately. I  sympathise  most  deeply  with  your  position.  You 


24  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

have  many  kind  friends — none  can  be  kinder  ;  but  the  situa- 
tion admits  of  no  consolation.  Do  not,  however,  believe  the 
sensation  reports  which  have  harrowed  us  here  yesterday.  We 
were  very  much  outnumbered ;  that  is  certain.  We  fought 
well  the  whole  of  the  day,  but  we  were  outgeneralled  and 
defeated,  after  nine  hours'  hard  fighting.  Whether  we  have 
lost  everything,  even  honour,  cannot  be  decided  for  a  few  days. 
I  shall  try  to  write  by  the  intermediate  steamer,  but  certainly 
by  the  next  Cunarder,  this  day  week,  and  I  will  then  let  you 
know  what  I  think  you  had  best  do.  I  don't  feel  now  as  if  I 
could  come  into  England  again.  Don't  show  this  letter  to 
any  one.  I  hope  you  are  not  in  London,  and  that  you  are 
with  the  Hughes. 

God  bless  you  and  my  dear  children  ! 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Nahant, 
July  28th,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  have  not  written  to  Forster,  because 
I  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  he  sees  my  letters  to  you,  and 
I  could  only  write  the  same  facts  and  the  same  conclusions  to 
other  correspondents.  Nevertheless,  I  wish  very  much  to  write  a 
line  to  him  and  to  Milnes,  and  especially  to  Lord  de  Grey,  and 
shall  certainly  do  so  within  a  very  short  time.  I  was  delighted 
to  hear  of  young  Kidley's  triumphs,  and  sincerely  sympathise  in 
the  joy  of  Lord  and  Lady  Wensleydale,  to  whom  pray  give  my 
kindest  remembrance  and  congratulations.  I  am  very  much 
obliged  to  Lord  John  Russell  for  his  kindness  in  sending  me 
a  copy  of  his  note  to  Mr.  Everett.  I  have  thought  very  often 
of  writing  myself  to  Lord  John,  and  have  abstained  because  I 
knew  that  his  time  was  so  thoroughly  occupied  as  to  leave 
him  little  leisure  for  unofficial  correspondence,  and  because  I 
knew  also  that  his  despatches  from  Washington  and  his  con- 
versations with  Mr.  Adams  must  place  him  entirely  in  posses- 
sion of  all  the  facts  of  this  great  argument,  and  I  have  not  the 


1861.]  THE  ESSENCE  OF  THE  UNIOX.  25 

vanity  to  suppose  that  any  commentary  which  I  could  make 
would  alter  the  conclusion  of  a  mind  so  powerful  and  experi- 
enced as  his. 

"  If  on  the  4th  of  March,"  he  says  to  Mr.  Everett,  "  you 
had  allowed  the  Confederate  States  to  go  out  from  among  you, 
you  could  have  prevented  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  con- 
fined it  to  the  slaveholding  States."  But,  unfortunately,  had 
this  permission  been  given,  there  would  have  been  no  "  you  " 
left.  The  existence  of  this  Government  consists  in  its  unity. 
Once  admit  the  principle  of  secession,  and  it  has  ceased  to  be ; 
there  is  no  authority  then  left  either  to  prevent  the  extension  of 
slavery,  or  to  protect  the  life  or  property  of  a  single  individual 
on  our  share  of  the  continent.  Permit  the  destruction  of  the 
great  law  which  has  been  supreme  ever  since  we  were  a  nation, 
and  any  other  law  may  be  violated  at  will.  We  have  no 
government  but  this  one,  since  we  were  dependent  and  then 
insurgent  colonies.  Take  away  that,  and  you  take  away  our 
all.  This  is  not  merely  the  most  logical  of  theories,  but  the 
most  unquestionable  of  facts.  This  great  struggle  is  one 
between  law  and  anarchy.  The  slaveholders  mutiny  against 
all  government  on  this  continent,  because  it  has  been  irrevo- 
cably decided  no  further  to  extend  slavery.  Peaceful  acquies- 
cence in  the  withdrawal  of  the  seven  cotton  States  would  have 
been  followed  by  the  secession  of  the  remaining  eight  slave 
States,  and  probably  by  the  border  free  States.  Pennsylvania 
would  have  set  up  for  itself.  There  would  probably  have  been 
an  attempt  at  a  Western  Confederacy,  and  the  city  of  New 
York  had  already  announced  its  intention  of  organizing  itself 
into  a  free  town,  and  was  studying  the  constitutions  of 
Frankfort  and  Hamburg. 

In  short,  we  had  our  choice  to  submit  at  once  to  dismem- 
berment and  national  extinction  at  the  command  of  the 
slavery  oligarchy  which  has  governed  us  for  forty  years,  or 
to  fight  for  our  life.  The  war  forced  upon  us  by  the  slave- 
holders has  at  last  been  accepted,  and  it  is  amazing  to  me 
that  its  inevitable  character  and  the  absolute  justice  of  our 
cause  does  not  carry  conviction  to  every  unprejudiced  mind. 
Those,  of  course,  who  believe  with  the  Confederates  that 


26  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CnAr.  I. 

slavery  is  a  blessing,  and  the  most  fitting  corner-stone  of  a 
political  edifice,  will  sympathise  with  their  cause.  But  those 
who  believe  it  to  be  a  curse  should,  I  think,  sympathise  with 
us  who,  while  circumscribing  its  limits  and  dethroning  it  as  a 
political  power,  are  endeavouring  to  maintain  the  empire  of 
the  American  constitution  and  the  English  common  law  over 
this  great  continent.  This  movement  in  which  we  now 
engage,  and  which  Jefferson  Davis  thinks  so  ridiculous,  is  to 
me  one  of  the  most  noble  spectacles  which  I  remember  in 
history.  Twenty  millions  of  people  have  turned  out  as  a  great 
posse  comitatus  to  enforce  the  laws  over  a  mob  of  two  or  three 
millions — not  more — led  on  by  two  or  three  dozen  accom- 
plished, daring,  and  reckless  desperadoes.  This  is  the  way 
history  will  record  this  transaction,  be  the  issue  what  it  may ; 
and,  if  we  had  been  so  base  as  to  consent  to  our  national  death 
without  striking  a  blow,  our  epitaph  would  have  been  more 
inglorious  than  I  hope  it  may  prove  to  be. 

Don't  be  too  much  cast  down  about  Bull's  Eun.  In  a  mili- 
tary point  of  view  it  is  of  no  very  great  significance.  We  have 
lost,  perhaps,  at  the  utmost,  1000  men,  2000  muskets,  and  a 
dozen  cannon  or  so.  There  was  a  panic,  it  is  true,  and  we  feel 
ashamed, .  awfully  mortified ;  but  our  men  had  fought  four  or 
five  hours  without  flinching,  against  concealed  batteries,  at  the 
cannon's  mouth,  under  a  blazing  July  Virginia  sun,  taking 
battery  after  battery,  till  they  were  exhausted  with  thirst,  and 
their  tongues  were  hanging  out  of  their  mouths.  It  was  physi- 
cally impossible  for  these  advanced  troops  to  fight  longer,  and 
the  reserves  were  never  brought  up.  So  far  I  only  say  what  is 
undisputed.  The  blame  for  the  transaction  cannot  be  fairly 
assigned  till  we  get  official  accounts.  As  for  the  affair  itself, 
the  defeat  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  If  you  read  again  the 
earlier  part  of  my  last  letter,  you  will  see  that  I  anticipated, 
as  did  we  all,  that  the  grand  attack  on  Manassas  was  to  be 
made  with  McClellan's  column,  Patterson's  and  McDowell's 
combined.  This  would  have  given  about  125,000  men.  In- 
stead of  this,  McDowell's  advance  with  some  50,000  men,  not 
one-third  part  of  which  were  engaged,  while  the  rebels  had 
100,000  within  immediate  reach  of  the  scene  of  action.  You 


1861.]  THE  WAR  WAS  INEVITABLE.  27 

will  also  see,  by  the  revelations  made  in  Congress  and  in  the 
New  York  Times,  [that  this  has  been  purely  a  politician's 
battle.  It  is  in  a  political  point  of  view,  not  a  military,  that 
the  recent  disaster  is  most  deplorable.  The  rebellion  has,  of 
course,  gained  credit  by  this  repulse  of  our  troops. 

As  for  the  civil  war,  nothing  could  have  averted  it.  It  is 
the  result  of  the  forty  years'  aggression  of  the  slavery  power. 
Lincoln's  election  was  a  vote  by  a  majority  of  every  Free  State 
that  slavery  should  go  no  further,  and  then  the  South  dis- 
solved the  union.  Suppose  we  had  acknowledged  the  con- 
federacy, there  would  have  been  war  all  the  same.  Whether 
we  are  called  two  confederacies  or  one,  the  question  of  slavery 
in  the  territories  has  got  to  be  settled  by  war,  and  so  has  the 
possession  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Even 
on  the  impossible  theory  that  the  United  States  continued  to 
exist  as  a  government,  after  submitting,  without  a  struggle, 
to  dismemberment,  still  it  would  be  obliged  to  fight  for  the 
right  of  its  four  or  five  million  of  tonnage  to  navigate  American 
waters. 

In  brief,  the  period  has  arrived  for  us,  as  it  has  often  arrived 
for  other  commonwealths  in  history,  when  we  must  fight  for 
national  existence,  or  agree  to  be  extinguished  peaceably.  I 
am  not  very  desponding,  although  the  present  is  gloomy. 
Perhaps  the  day  will  come  ere  long  when  we  shall  all  of  us, 
not  absolutely  incapacitated  by  age  or  sickness,  be  obliged  to 
shoulder  our  rifles  as  privates  in  the  ranks.  At  present  there 
seems  Jio  lack  of  men.  The  reverse  of  last  Sunday  has  excited 
the  enthusiasm  afresh,  and  the  Government  receives  new  regi- 
ments faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them.  As  I  am  not  fit  to 
be  an  officer,  being  utterly  without  military  talent  or  training, 
and  as  it  is  now  decided  that  such  responsible  offices  shall  not 
be  conferred  except  upon  those  who  can  bear  an  examination 
by  competent  military  authorities,  I  am  obliged  to  regret  my 
want  of  early  education  in  the  only  pursuit  which  is  now  use- 
ful. As  to  going  abroad  and  immersing  myself  again  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  it  is  simply  an  impossibility.  I  can  think 
of  nothing  but  American  affairs,  and  should  be  almost  ashamed 
if  it  were  otherwise. 


28  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  I. 

A  grim  winter  is  before  us.  Gather  your  rosebuds  while 
you  may,  is  my  advice  to  you,  and  engage  your  passages  not 
before  October.  But,  having  said  this,  I  give  you  carte  Uanche, 
and  let  me  know  your  decision  when  made.  The  war  is  to  be 
a  long  one.  We  have  no  idea  of  giving  in,  and  no  doubt  of 
ultimate  triumph.  Our  disaster  is  nothing:  our  disgrace  is 
great,  and  it  must  be  long  before  it  can  be  retrieved,  because 
General  Scott  will  now  be  free  to  pursue  the  deliberate  plan 
which  he  had  marked  out  when  he  was  compelled  by  outside 
pressure  to  precipitate  his  raw  levies  against  an  overwhelming 
superiority  of  rebels  in  a  fortified  position. 

A  few  days  ago  I  went  over  to  Quincy  by  appointment  to 
dine  with  old  Mr.  Quincy.  The  dinner  was  very  pleasant. 
Edmund  was  there,  and  very  agreeable,  with  Professor  Gould, 
and  Mr.  Waterston,  and  the  ladies.  The  old  gentleman,  now 
in  his  ninetieth  year,  is  straight  as  an  arrow,  with  thirty-two 
beautiful  teeth,  every  one  his  own,  and  was  as  genial  and 
cordial  as  possible.  He  talked  most  agreeably  on  all  the 
topics  of  the  day,  and  after  dinner  discussed  the  political 
question  in  all  its  bearings  with  much  acumen,  and  with 
plenty  of  interesting  historical  reminiscences.  He  was  much 
pleased  with  the  messages  I  delivered  to  him  from  Lord 
Lyndhurst,  and  desired  in  return  that  I  should  transmit  his 
most  cordial  and  respectful  regards.  Please  add  mine  to  his, 
as  well  as  to  Lady  Lyndhurst,  when  you  have  the  privilege 
of  seeing  them.  I  was  very  sorry  not  to  be  able  to  accept 
young  Mr.  Adams's  offered  hospitality,  but  I  had  made 
arrangements  to  return  to  Nahant  that  night.  Pray  give 
my  best  regards  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Adams.  Last  Saturday  I 
went  to  Cambridge,  and  visited  Longfellow.  He  was  in  bed, 
with  both  hands  tied  up ;  but  his  burns  are  recovering,  and 
his  face  will  not  be  scarred,  and  he  will  not  lose  the  use  of 
either  hand.  He  was  serene  and  resigned,  but  dreaded  going 
downstairs  into  the  desolate  house.  His  children  were  going 
in  and  out  of  the  room.  He  spoke  of  his  wife,  and  narrated 
the  whole  tragedy  very  gently,  and  without  any  paroxysms  of 
grief,  although  it  was  obvious  that  he  felt  himself  a  changed 
man.  Holmes  came  in.  We  talked  of  general  matters,  and 


18GL]  INCIDENTS   OF  THE  BATTLE.  29 

Longfellow  was  interested  to  listen  to  and  speak  of  the  news 
of  the  day  and  of  the  all-absorbing  topic  of  the  war. 

The  weather  has  been  almost  cloudless  for  the  seven  weeks 
that  I  have  been  at  home — one  blaze  of  sunshine.  But  the 
drought  is  getting  to  be  alarming.  It  has  hardly  rained  a 
drop  since  the  first  week  in  June.  Fortunately  the  charm 
seems  now  broken,  and  to-day  there  have  been  some  refreshing 
showers,  with  a  prospect  of  more.  I  dined  on  Saturday  with 
Holmes.  He  is  as  charming,  witty,  and  sympathetic  as  ever. 
I  wish  I  could  send  you  something  better  than  this,  but  unless 
I  should  go  to  Washington  again  I  don't  see  what  I  can  write 
now  that  is  worth  reading.  To-morrow  I  dine  here  with 
Wharton,  who  is  unchanged,  and  desires  his  remembrances  to 
you ;  and  next  day  I  dine  with  Lowell  at  Cambridge,  where 
I  hope  to  find  Hawthorne,  Holmes,  and  others.  .  .  . 

P.S. — Tell  Tom  Brown,  with  my  kindest  regards,  that  every 
one  is  reading  him  here  with  delight,  and  the  dedication  is 
especially  grateful  to  our  feelings.  The  Boston  edition  (I 
wish  he  had  the  copyright)  has  an  uncommonly  good  likeness 
of  him. 

As  for  Wadsworth,  I  heard  from  several  sources  of  his  energy 
and  pluck.  Wharton  has  been  in  my  room  since  I  began  this 
note.  He  had  a  letter  from  his  sister,  in  which  she  says  John 
Vennes,  a  servant  (an  Englishman)  of  theirs,  who  enlisted  in 
the  69th  New  York,  had  written  to  say  that  his  master  was  the 
bravest  of  the  brave,  and  that  he  was  very  proud  of  him  as  he 
saw  him  without  his  hat,  and  revolver  in  hand,  riding  about 
and  encouraging  the  troops  at  the  last  moment  to  make  a 
stand.  I  had  a  letter  from  Colonel  Gordon  the  other  day.  He 
is  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  not  at  all  discouraged  by  the  results 
of  the  battle,  in  which  of  course  he  had  no  part.  He  says, 
"  Our  late  check,  it  seems  to  me,  is  almost  a  victory.  From 
seven  to  four  did  our  brave  troops  face  that  deadly  fire  of 
artillery  and  infantry  delivered  from  breastworks  and  hidden 
embrasures.  Over  and  over  again  did  they  roll  back  the 
greatly  outnumbering  columns  of  the  enemy,  until  at  last, 
when  a  foolish  panic  seized  them,  they  left  the  enemy  in 


30  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CnAr.  I. 

such  a  condition  that  he  could  not  pursue  them  more  than  a 
mile  and  a  half;  so  that  one  entire  battery,  which  they  might 
have  had  for  the  taking,  was  left  all  night  on  the  field  and 
finally  returned  to  us  again.  Many  such  victories  would  de- 
populate the  South,  and  from  the  victors  there  is  no  sound  of 
joy.  In  Charleston,  Virginia,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  at  Mar- 
tinsburg  they  mourn  the  loss  of  many  of  their  sons.  Fewer  in 
numbers,  we  were  more  than  their  match,  and  will  meet  them 

again." 

In  estimating  the  importance  of  this  affair  as  to  its  bearings 
on  the  future,  it  should,  I  think,  be  never  forgotten  that  the 
panic,  whatever  was  its  mysterious  cause,  was  not  the  result  of 
any  overpowering  onset  of  the  enemy.  It  did  not  begin  with 
the  troops  engaged. 

Here  we  are  not  discouraged.  The  three  months'  men  are 
nearly  all  of  them  going  back  again.  Congress  has  voted 
500,000  men  and  5,000,000  of  dollars ;  has  put  on  an  income  tax 
of  three  per  cent.,  besides  raising  20  or  30  millions  extra  on  tea , 
coffee,  sugar,  and  other  hitherto  untaxed  articles,  and  Govern- 
ment securities  are  now  as  high  in  the  market  as  they  were 
before  the  late  battle.  .  .  . 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

New  York, 
August  12th,  1861. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, — I  have  but  an  instant  to  write  a  single 
line.  It  is  nearly  twelve  at  night,  and  I  leave  for  Washington 
to-morrow  morning,  very  early.  I  have  just  been  notified  of 
my  appointment  as  Minister  to  Austria.  ...  I  am  afraid  Lily 
and  Mary  will  be  awfully  disappointed,  particularly  as  I  wrote 
so  recently  that  you  had  better  return  to  America.  But  I 
think  sincerely  that  they  would  both  be  made  rather  melan- 
choly by  the  present  aspect  of  society  here.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
great  change  in  the  political  situation,  and  I  have  no  time  to 
go  into  the  depths  of  affairs.  We  expect  daily  to  hear  of  a 
battle  in  Missouri,  and  of  course  feel  anxious.  I  have  not 


1861.]  FEELING  IN  ENGLAND.  31 

seen  Plon  PI  on,  and  he  has  left  Washington.  Simmer  dined 
with  me  and  Sam  Hooper  to-day  here  at  the  Brevoort  House, 
just  from  Washington.  He  had  been  dining  with  Plon  Plon 
once  or  twice,  and  we  are  very  much  amazed,  annoyed,  and 
amused,  at  our  allowing  him  to  make  a  formal  visit  to  the 
rebels,  escorted  to  their  lines  by  a  company  of  Union  cavalry. 
Sumner  was  very  energetic  and  stedfast  in  urging  my  ap- 
pointment, to  which  there  was  much  opposition  owing  to  the 
old  cause — too  much  for  Massachusetts ;  and  there  were  some 
urgent  and  formidable  candidates. 

Ever  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  the  Duke  of  Argyll  to  Mrs.  Motley. 

Inveraray, 
August  2Qth,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  MOTLEY,— Many  thanks  for  the  enclosed. 
You  need  not  apologise  for  sending  me  letters  containing 
details.  All  that  I  have  seen  in  your  husband's  letters  tends 
to  increase  our  warm  esteem  and  regard  for  him.  I  was  sure 
he  would  feel  the  Manassas  affair  very  keenly,  and  we  feel 
much  for  him.  It  seems  certain  that  the  defeat  was  made  far 
worse  by  the  exaggeration  of  the  Press  ;  though  Kussell's 
account  in  the  Times  is  so  far  confirmatory  of  the  papers.  But 
Bussell  never  reached  the  real  front  of  the: Federal  line,  and 
consequently  saw  nothing  of  the  troops  that  behaved  well. 

I  think  your  husband's  argument  against  ,Lord  Eussell's 
advice  (at  least  as  that  advice  is  quoted)  is  excellent.  It  does 
seem  probable  that  to  have  allowed  secession  without  a  fight 
would  have  led  to  the  complete  disintegration  of  the  Northern 
States. 

I  fear  you  have  now  before  you  a  long  war.  It  is  clear  that 
a  regular  trained  army  must  be  formed  before  the  subjugation 
of  the  South  can  be  rendered  possible,  and  I  confess  I  am  not 
so  hopeful  of  the  result  as  I  once  was. 

You  may  set  Mr.  Motley's  mind  at  rest,  I  think,  as  regards 


32  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  I. 

any  possibility  of  our  interfering — provided,  of  course,  the  con- 
test is  carried  on  with  a  due  regard  to  the  law  of  Nations  and 
the  rights  of  Neutrals.     But  we  have  been  in  some  alarm  le&t 
the  Government  were  about  to  adopt  measures  which  that  law 
does  not  recognise.     I  hope  the  danger  also  has  passed  away. 
May  I  ask  you  to  direct  the  enclosed  letter  to  your  husband  ? 
I  am,  my  dear  Mrs.  Motley, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

ARGYLL. 


CHAPTER  II. 

VIENNA. 

Voyage  to  Liverpool— Fryston  Hall — Mr.  W.  E.  Forster — Lord  J.  Kussell — 
Abergeldie — The  cotton  famine— The  English  Press — Balmoral — Interview 
with  the  Queen — Paris — M.  Thouvenel — The  English  Government  and  the 
Press— Life  in  Vienna— Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— News  of  the  Battle  of 
Ball's  Bluff—  Anxiety  and  suspense — Attitude  of  the  European  Powers — 
Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— His  son's  remarkable  escape  at  Ball's  Bluff— 
The.  Trent  affair — Imminent  risk  of  war  with  England — Action  of  the 
Times — An  anxious  crisis — Awaiting  the  President's  Message. 

To  his  Mother. 

"Wharfside,  Yorkshire, 

September  5th,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — I  have  but  time  to  write  you  a  brief 
note.  When  I  get  to  Vienna  I  mean  to  be  a  good  correspon- 
dent. Until  that  time  I  shall  be  very  much  hurried.  My 
voyage  was  a  singularly  pleasant  one — no  bad  weather,  smooth 
seas,  and  fair  winds,  the  whole  way.  We  reached  Liverpool 
in  exactly  eleven  days.  I  was  obliged  to  stop  all  Sunday  in 
that  not  very  fascinating  city.  I  parted  from  Mackintosh 
that  evening,  who  went  to  Tenby  in  Pembrokeshire,  and  from 
Mr.  Blake,  who  was  to  stop  a  few  days  in  Liverpool.  I  found 
by  telegram  that  Mary  and  Lily  were  staying  with  Mr.  Monck- 
ton  Milnes  in  Yorkshire,  so  I  went  there,  after  passing  one  day 
ki  London.  I  afterwards  dined  with  the  Adamses. 

I  do  not  think  there  is  any  present  intention  here  of  inter-^ 
fering  with  our  blockade,  or  any  wish,  which  is  the  same  thing, 
of  going  to  war  in  order  to  establish  the  Southern  confederacy 
and  get  their  cotton  crop.  I  think  they  will  try  to  rub  on 
through  next  year,  unless  the  cotton  famine  should  be  very 
great,  and  the  consequent  disturbances  very  alarming. 

I  passed  one  day  at  Fryston  Hall,  Milnes's  beautiful  place 
in  Yorkshire,  where  I  had  a  delightful  meeting  with  Mary  and 
Lily.  I  have  not  yet  seen  dear  little  Susie,  who  is  at  Cromer 

VOL.  II.  D 


34  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II.- 

with  her  governess,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  I  missed  the- 
dear  face  of  my  precious  Mary.  I  hope  she  is  enjoying  herselfr 
and  that  you  will  be  as  fond  of  her  as  you  used  to  be.  It  was 
too  bad  that  we  should  have  missed  each  other  by  a  single 
day. 

We  have  been  spending  two  or  three  days  since  leaving 
Fryston  with  Mr.  Forster,  M.P.  for  Bradford,  a  gentleman 
whom  you  have  often  heard  me  speak  of  as  the  warmest  and 
most  intelligent  friend  that  America  possesses  in  England.  It 
is  very  agreeable  for  me  to  combine  business  with  pleasure  in 
my  visit  to  him.  He  was  to  answer  Gregory,  the  champion  of 
the  South,  and  will  do  so  when  the  question  of  Southern 
recognition  comes  up,  and  my  conversations  with  him  have 
been  very  satisfactory.  He  disbelieves  in  any  attempt  to  break 
the  blockade,  provided  it  is  efficient. 

We  go  to-morrow  to  our  friends  the  de  Greys  for  a  week's- 
visit.  Lord  de  Grey  is  a  warm  friend  of  the  North.  During- 
that  week  I  expect  to  run  up  to  Scotland  for  a  day's  visit  to- 
Lord  John  Kussell.  We  shall  then  go  to  London. 

I  shall  write  another  little  note  very  soon.  God  bless  you 
and  preserve  your  health,  my  dearest  mother.  Give  my  love- 
to  my  father  and  to  my  little  Mary,  and  to  all  the  family 
great  and  small. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ms  Mother. 

East  Sheen, 
September  22nd,  1861, 

MY  DEAKEST  MOTHEE, — I  am  writing  you  a  little  note  again, 
I  can  do  no  more  until  such  time  as  we  shall  be  settled  at 
Vienna.  We  came  down  here  last  evening  to  spend  Sunday 
with  your  old  friends  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bates.  He  is  the  same 
excellent,  kindly  old  gentleman  he  always  was,  and  is  a& 
staunch  an  American  and  as  firm  a  believer  in  the  ultimate- 
success  of  our  cause  as  if  he  had  never  left  Boston. 

....  I  have  lost  no  time  since  I  have  been  in  England 


1861.]  THE  ENGLISH  PEESS   ON  THE  WAR.  35 

for  almost  every  day  I  have  had  interesting  conversations 
with  men  connected  with  the  G-overnment  or  engaged  in 
public  affairs. 

There  will  be  no  foreign  interference,  certainly  none  from 
England,  unless  we  be  utterly  defeated  in  our  present  struggle. 
We  spent  a  few  days  with  our  friends  the  de  Greys  in  York- 
shire. During  my  visit  I  went  up  to  the  north  of  Scotland  to 
pass  a  couple  of  days  with  Lord  John  Eussell  at  Abergeldie. 
It  is  an  old  Scotch  castle,  which  formerly  belonged  to  a  family 
of  Gordon  of  Abergeldie.  The  country  is  wild  and  pretty 
about  it,  with  mountains  clothed  in  purple  heather  all  round, 
the  Dee  winding  its  way  through  a  pleasant  valley,  and  the 
misty  heights  of  Lochnagar,  sung  by  Byron  in  his  younger 
days,  crowning  the  scene  whenever  the  clouds  permit  that 
famous  summit  to  be  visible. 

I  was  received  with  the  greatest  kindness.  There  were  no 
visitors  at  the  house,  for  both  Lord  and  Lady  Kussell  are  the 
most  domestic  people  in  the  world,  and  are  glad  to  escape 
from  the  great  whirl  of  London  society  as  much  as  they  can. 
In  the  afternoons  we  went  with  the  children  out  in  the  woods, 
making  fires,  boiling  a  kettle,  and  making  tea  al  fresco  with 
water  from  the  Dee,  which  by  the  way  is  rather  coffee 
coloured,  and  ascending  hills  to  get  peeps  of  the  prospects. 

Most  of  my  time,  however,  was  spent  in  long  and  full  con- 
versations tete-a-tete  with  Lord  John  (it  is  impossible  to  call 
him  by  his  new  title  of  Lord  Kussell). 

The  cotton  manufacturers  are  straining  every  nerve  to 
supply  themselves  with  cotton  from  India  and  other  'sources. 
But  it  seems  rather  a  desperate  attempt  to  break  up  the 
Southern  monopoly,  however  galling  it  is  to  them. 

I  can  only  repeat,  everything  depends  upon  ourselves,  upon 
what  we  do.  There  are  a  few  papers,  like  the  Daily  News,  the 
Star,  and  the  Spectator,  which  sustain  our  cause  with  cordiality, 
vigour,  and  talent. 

The  real  secret  of  the  exultation  which  manifests  itself  in 
the  Times  and  other  organs  over  our  troubles  and  disasters, 
is  their  hatred,  not  to  America,  so  much  as  to  democracy  in 
England.  We  shall  be  let  alone  long  enough  for  us  to  put 

D  2 


36  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  II. 

down  this  mutiny  if  we  are  ever  going  to  do  it.  And  I 
firmly  believe  it  will  be  done  in  a  reasonable  time,  and  I  tell 
everybody  here  that  the  Great  Kepublic  will  rise  from  the  con- 
flict stronger  than  ever,  and  will  live  to  plague  them  many  a 
long  year. 

....  We  shall  probably  remain  another  week  in  London, 
for  I  have  not  yet  seen  Lord  Palmerston,  whom  I  am  most 
anxious  to  have  some  talk  with,  and  he  is  expected  to-morrow 
in  London.  While  I  was  stopping  with  Lord  John,  the  Queen 
sent  to  intimate  that  she  would  be  pleased  if  I  would  make  a 
visit  at  Balmoral,  which  is  their  Highland  home  about  one 
and  a  half  miles  from  Abergeldie.  Accordingly,  Lord  John 
went  over  with  me  in  his  carriage.  We  were  received  entirely 
without  ceremony  by  the  Prince  Consort  (we  were  all  dressed 
in  the  plainest  morning  costumes),  who  conversed  very  plea- 
santly with  us,  and  I  must  say  there  was  never  more  got  out 
of  the  weather  than  we  managed  to  extract  from  it  on  this 
occasion.  After  we  had  been  talking  some  twenty  minutes 
the  door  opened,  and  Her  Majesty,  in  a  plain  black  gown, 
walked  quietly  into  the  room,  and  I  was  presented  with  the 
least  possible  ceremony  by  the  Prince  Consort.  I  had  never 
seen  her  before,  but  the  little  photographs  in  every  shop 
window  of  Boston  or  London  give  you  an  exact  representation 
of  her. 

They  are  so  faithful  that  I  do  not  feel  that  I  know  her 
appearance  now  better  than  I  did  before.  Her  voice  is  very 
agreeable  and  her  smile  pleasant.  She  received  me  very 
politely,  said  something  friendly  about  my  works,  and  then 
alluded  with  interest  to  the  great  pleasure  which  the  Prince  of 
Wales  had  experienced  in  his  visit  to  America. 

The  Prince  Consort  spoke  with  great  animation  on  the  same 
subject.  There  is  not  much  more  to  be  said  in  regard  to  the 
interview.  I  thought  that  the  sending  for  me  was  intended  as 
a  compliment  to  the  United  States,  and  a  mark  of  respect  to 
one  of  its  representatives. 

Most  affectionately  your  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


1861.]       THE   ENGLISH  GOVERNMENT  AND    THE  PRESS.          37 

To  his  Mother. 

Paris, 
October  18th,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, —  ....  I  have  not  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  the  Emperor,  as  he  is  at  Compiegne.  I  saw 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Thouvenel,  the  other  day, 
and  had  a  long  talk.  So  far  as  words  go,  he  is  satisfactory 
enough. 

You  are  annoyed  with  the  English  Press,  nevertheless  it 
is  right  to  discriminate.  The  Press  is  not  the  Government, 
and  the  present  English  Government  has  thus  far  given  us 
no  just  cause  of  offence.  Moreover,  although  we  have  many 
many  bitter  haters  in  England,  we  have  many  warm  friends. 
I  sent  you  by  the  last  steamer  a  speech  of  my  friend,  Mr. 
Forster,  to  his  constituents.  No  man  in  England  more 
thoroughly  understands  American  politics  than  he  does. 
There  are  few  like  him 

Good-bye,  and  God  bless  you,  rny  dear  mother. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 


Paris, 
October  25th,  1861. 


MY  DEAREST  LITTLE  MARY, — Your  letter  of  5th  of  October 
arrived  a  few  days  ago,  and  we  are  glad  to  find  that  you  are 
growing  fat  and  hearty,  although  we  hardly  expected  that 
result  from  the  hot  sun  of  your  native  land  at  this  epoch.  I 
am  very  grateful  to  all  the  kind  friends  who  are  so  good  to 
you.  I  hope  your  dear  grandmama  will  continue  to  improve 
in  health  and  strength,  although  I  fear  that  Boston  will 
hardly  be  so  strengthening  to  her  as  Nahant.  Give  us  as 
many  details  as  you  can  of  what  you  see  and  hear,  in  all 
affairs  of  public  interest,  military  and  political.  You  have 
no  idea  how  we  hunger  and  thirst  for  such  details,  and  how 
entirely  we  depend  upon  you.  I  wish  that  you  would  keep  a 


38  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  II. 

journal  of  what  you  see  and  hear  that  you  think  will  interest 
us,  and  so  when  you  write  to  your  mother  and  me,  you  will 
merely  have  to  refer  to  and  copy  from  your  diary.  This  will 
be  a  more*  satisfactory  as  well  as  an  easier  way  of  corre- 
sponding than  it  is  to  sit  down  at  the  last  minute  and  write 
a  hurried  note. 

Nothing  makes  letters  more  interesting  than  personal  and 
private  details  of  important  events.  You  are  living  at  this 
moment  in  a  country  on  which  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world 
are  fixed,  and  in  the  midst  of  one  of  the  most  momentous 
epochs  of  the  world's  history.  Try  to  describe  to  us  simply 
but  fully  whatever  you  see  or  hear  that  you  think  may  be 
interesting  to  us.  It  will  be  a  good  mental  occupation  to 
yourself,  and  the  results  will  be  very  welcome  to  us.  Do  not 
be  appalled  at  what  I  propose  to  you.  I  do  not  expect  my 
dear  little  Mary  to  write  me  great  political  letters,  and 
I  shall  not  print  them  in  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung,  but  if  you 
take  pains  you  may  make  them  a  great  comfort  to  us.  So 
soon  as  I  get  to  Vienna,  I  mean  to  write  to  a  few  of  my 
friends  who  promised  me  letters,  and  shall  hope  at  least  for  a 
reply.  The  object  has  been  from  the  beginning,  and  is  still, 
not  to  secede  permanently  from  the  Union,  but  to  conquer 
the  whole  United  States  and  make  it  all  one  slave  state. 
Here  are  foes  against  whom  it  is  legitimate  to  feel  some 
resentment.  But  one  would  think  it  impossible  for  those 
engaged  in  a  common  resistance  to  this  mutiny  not  to  sink, 
for  the  period  of  the  war  at  least,  every  petty  feeling  of 
dislike  to  each  other.  I  am  sure  that  I  have  none  but  the 
kindest  feelings  now  to  every  man  of  whatever  party  in  the 
Free  States — Hunker,  Democrat,  Belleverettian,  Kepublican, 
or  Abolitionist — provided  they  are  willing  to  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder  to  save  the  country  from  extinction. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


I8G1J  LIFE   IN  VIENNA,  '39 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
November  llth,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — This  is  your  birthday,  and  I  cannot 
help  writing  a  line  to  wish  you  joy  and  many  happy  and 
healthy  returns  of  it.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  such  good 

accounts  of  you  and  A .     I  suppose  by  this  time  that  you 

•are  established  in  town.  I  received  your  letter,  conjointly 
with  the  governor's,  of  October  12th.  We  are  far  from  comfort- 
•able  yet.  We  are  at  the  hotel  called  the  Archduke  Charles, 
where  we  are  pretty  well  off,  but  the  difficulty  of  finding  apart- 
ments is  something  beyond  expression.  We  have  finally 
decided  upon  a  rather  small  one,  just  vacated  by  the  Secretary 
of  Legation,  Mr.  Lippitt — a  very  intelligent  man,  a  class- 
mate of  Lowell  and  Story.  He  has  been  here  eight  years, 
.and  is  married  to  a  lady  of  the  place,  daughter  of  a  banker. 
He  is  very  useful  to  me,  and  is  quite  sympathetic  with  my 
political  views.  I  have  had  two  interviews  with  Count  Kech- 
berg,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  He  received  me  with 
.great  cordiality,  and  informed  me  that  my  appointment  had 
given  very  great  pleasure  to  the  Emperor  and  the  Government, 
and  that  I  was  very  well  known  to  them  by  reputation.  I  am 
to  have  my  formal  audience  of  the  Emperor  day  after  to-morrow. 
But  I  am  already  accredited  by  delivering  an  official  copy  of 
any  letter  of  credence  to  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs. 
I  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  several  of  my  colleagues. 
We  dine  with  the  English  Ambassador,  Lord  Bloomfield, 
to-morrow.  He  was  Secretary  of  Embassy  at  St.  Petersburg 
twenty  years  ago  when  I  was  Secretary  of  Legation,  and  he 
received  me  like  an  old  acquaintance.  Lady  Bloomfield  is 
very  amiable  and  friendly,  and  very  kind  and  helpful  to  Mary 
in  her  puzzling  commencements  in  official  life.  There  is  always 
much  bother  and  boredom  at  setting  off.  When  we  have 
once  shaken  down  into  the  ruts  we  shall  go  on  well  enough,  no 
doubt.  But  our  thoughts  are  ever  at  home.  I  never  knew 
how  intensely  anxious  I  was  till  now  that  I  am  so  far  away.  I 
get  the  telegrams  in  advance  of  the  press  through  my  bankers 


40  MOTLEY'S   LETTEES.  [CHAP.  H. 

and  Mary  always  begins  to  weep  and  wail  before  I  open  them. 
I  do  wish  we  could  receive  one  good  piece  of  news.  But  I  am 
not  disheartened.  I  feel  perfect  confidence  that  the  great  result 
cannot  be  but  good  and  noble.  As  I  am  not  an  optimist  by 
nature,  and  far  from  being  constitutionally  hopeful,  there  is  no 
harm  in  my  expressing  myself  thus.  We  are  going  through  a 
fiery  furnace,  but  we  shall  come  forth  purified.  God  bless  you, 
my  dearest  mother !  My  love  to  the  governor  and  all,  great 
and  small. 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 


Vienna, 
November  Uth,  1861. 


MY  DEAE  HOLMES, — Your  letter  of  October  8th  awaited  me- 
here.  I  need  not  tell  you  with  what  delight  I  read  it,  and  with 
what  gratitude  I  found  you  so  faithful  to  the  promises  which 
we  exchanged  on  board  the  Europa.  Your  poem,1  read  at  the 
Napoleon  dinner,  I  had  already  read  several  times  in  various 
papers,  and  admired  it  very  much,  but  I  thank  you  for  having 
the  kindness  to  enclose  it.  As  soon  as  I  read  your  letter  I  sat 
down  to  reply,  but  I  had  scarcely  written  two  lines  when  I 
received  the  first  telegram  of  the  Ball's  Bluff  affair.  I  instantly 
remembered  what  you  had  told  me — that  Wendell  "  was  on 
the  right  of  the  advance  on  the  Upper  Potomac,  the  post  of 
honour  and  danger,"  and  it  was  of  course  impossible  for  me  to- 
write  to  you  till  I  had  learned  more,  and  you  may  easily  con- 
ceive our  intense  anxiety.  The  bare  brutal  telegram  announc- 
ing a  disaster  arrives  always  four  days  before  any  details  can 
possibly  be  brought.  Well,  after  the  four  days  came  my 
London  paper ;  but,  as  ill-luck  would  have  it,  my  American 
ones  had  not  begun  to  arrive.  At  last,  day  before  yesterday 
I  got  a  New  York  Evening  Post,  which  contained  Frank 
Palfrey's  telegram.  Then  our  hearts  were  saddened  enough 
by  reading, "  Willie  Putnam,  killed  ;  Lee,  Bevere,  and  George 

1  'Vive  la  France.'  A  sentiment  Napoleon  at  the  Revere  House,  Septem- 
offered  at  the  dinner  to  H.I.H.  Prince  ber  25,  18G1. 


1861.]  NEWS   OF  BALL'S  BLUFF.  41 

Perry,  captured  ; "  but  they  were  relieved  of  an  immense 
anxiety  by  the  words,  "  0.  W.  Holmes,  jun.,  slightly  wounded." 
Poor  Mrs.  Putnam !  I  wish  you  would  tell  Lowell  (for  to  the 
mother  or  father  I  do  not  dare  to  write)  to  express  the  deep 
sympathy  which  I  feel  for  their  bereavement,  that  there  were 
many  tears  shed  in  our  little  household  in  this  distant  place 
for  the  fate  of  his  gallant,  gentle-hearted,  brave-spirited 
nephew.  I  did  not  know  him  much — not  at  all  as  grown 
man ;  but  the  name  of  Willie  Putnam  was  a  familiar  sound 
to  us  six  years  ago  on  the  banks  of  the  Arno,  for  we  had  the 
pleasure  of  passing  a  winter  in  Florence  at  the  same  time  with 
the  Putnams,  and  I  knew  that  that  studious  youth  promised  to 
be  all  which  his  name  and  his  blood  and  the  influences  under 
which  he  was  growing  up  entitled  him  to  become.  We  often 
talked  of  American  politics — I  mean  his  father  and  mother 
and  ourselves — and  I  believe  that  we  thoroughly  sympathised 
in  our  views  and  hopes.  Alas,  they  could  not  then  foresee 
that  that  fair-haired  boy  was  after  so  short  a  time  destined  to 
lay  down  his  young  life  on  the  Potomac,  in  one  of  the  opening 
struggles  for  freedom  and  law  with  the  accursed  institution 
of  slavery  !  Well,  it  is  a  beautiful  death — the  most  beautiful 
that  man  can  die.  Young  as  he  was,  he  had  gained  name  and 
fame,  and  his  image  can  never  be  associated  in  the  memory  of 
the  hearts  which  mourn  for  him  except  with  ideas  of  honour, 
duty,  and  purity  of  manhood. 

After  we  had  read  the  New  York  newspaper,  the  next  day 
came  a  batch  of  Boston  dailies  and  a  letter  from  my  dear 
little  Mary.  I  seized  it  with  avidity  and  began  to  read 
it  aloud,  and  before  I  had  finished  the  first  page  it  dropped 
from  my  hand  and  we  all  three  burst  into  floods  of  tears. 
Mary  wrote  that  Harry  Higginson,  of  the  2nd,  had  visited  the 
camp  of  the  20th,  and  that  Wendell  Holmes  was  shot  through 
the  lungs  and  not  likely  to  recover.  It  seemed  too  cruel,  just 
as  we  had  been  informed  that  he  was  but  slightly  wounded. 
After  the  paroxysm  was  over,  I  picked  up  the  letter  and  read  a 
rather  important  concluding  phrase  of  Mary's  statement,  viz., 
"  But  this,  thank  God,  has  proved  to  be  a  mistake."  I  think 
if  you  could  have  been  clairvoyant,  and  looked  in  upon  our 


42  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

dark  little  sitting-room  of  the  Archduke  Charles  Hotel,  fourth 
storey,  at  that  moment,  you  could  have  had  proof  enough,  if 
you  needed  any  fresh  ones,  of  the  strong  hold  that  you  and 
yours  have  on  all  our  affections.  There  are  very  many  youths 
in  that  army  of  freedom  whose  career  we  watch  with  intense 
interest  ;  but  Wendell  Holmes  is  ever  in  our  thoughts  side  by 
side  with  those  of  our  own  name  and  blood.  I  renounce  all 
attempt  to  paint  my  anxiety  about  our  affairs.  I  do  not  regret 
that  Wendell  is  with  the  army.  It  is  a  noble  and  healthy 
symptom  that  brilliant,  intellectual,  poetical  spirits  like  his 
spring  to  arms  when  a  noble  cause  like  ours  inspires  them. 
The  race  of  Philip  Sidneys  is  not  yet  extinct,  and  I  honestly 
believe  that  as  much  genuine  chivalry  exists  in  our  Free  States 
-at  this  moment  as  there  is  or  ever  was  in  any  part  of  the  world, 
from  the  Crusaders  down.  I  did  not  say  a  word  when  I  was  at 
home  to  Lewis  Stackpole  about  his  plans  —  but  I  was  very  glad 
when  he  wrote  to  me  that  he  had  accepted  a  captaincy  in 
Stevenson's  regiment.  I  suppose  by  this  time  they  are  in  the 


There,  you  see  how  truly  I  spoke  when  I  said  that  I  could 

write  nothing  to  you  worth  hearing,  while  I,  on  the  contrary, 

should   be  ever  hungering  and   thirsting  to  hear  from  you. 

•Our  thoughts  are  always  in  America,  but  I  am  obliged  to 

rely  upon  you  for  letters.     Sam  Hooper  promised  to  write  (I 

-am  delighted  to  see,  by  the  way,  that  he  has  been  nominated, 

-as  I  hoped  would  be  the  case,  for  Congress),  and  William 

Amory  promised  ;  but  you  are  the  only  one  thus  far  who  has 

kept  promises.     I  depend  on  your  generosity  to  send  me  very 

often  a  short  note.     No  matter  how  short,  it  will  be  a  living, 

fresh  impression  from  the  mint  of  your  mind  —  a  bit  of  pure  gold 

'worth  all  the   copper  counterfeits   which   circulate  here   in 

Europe.     Nobody  on  this  side  the  Atlantic  has  the  faintest 

conception  of  our  affairs.     Let  me  hear  from  time  to  time,  as 

often  as  you  can,  how  you  are  impressed  by  the  current  events, 

and  give  me  details  of  such  things  as  immediately  interest 

you.     Tell  me  all  about  Wendell.     How  does  your  wife  stand 

her  trials  ?     Give  my  love  to  her  and  beg  her  to  keep  up  a 

•brave  heart.     Heec  olim  meminisse  juvdbit.    And  how  will  those 


1861.]  ATTITUDE   OF  THE  EUROPEAN  POWERS.  43 

youths  who  stay  at  home  "  account  themselves  accursed  they 
were  not  there,"  when  the  great  work  has  been  done,  as  done 
it  will  be !  Of  that  I  am  as  sure  as  that  there  is  a  God  in 
Leaven. 

What  can  I  say  to  you  of  Cis- Atlantic  things  ?  I  am  almost 
ashamed  to  be  away  from  home.  You  know  that  I  decided  to 
remain,  and  had  sent  for  my  family  to  come  to  America,  when 
my  present  appointment  altered  my  plans.  I  do  what  good  I 
can.  I  think  I  made  some  impression  on  Lord  John  Kussell, 
with  whom  I  spent  two  days  soon  after  my  arrival  in  England ; 
•and  I  talked  very  frankly,  and  as  strongly  as  I  could,  to  Lord 
Palmerston ;  and  I  had  long  conversations  and  correspondences 
with  other  leading  men  in  England.  I  also  had  an  hour's  talk 
with  Thouvenel l  in  Paris,  and  hammered  the  Northern  view 
into  him  as  soundly  as  I  could.  For  this  year  there  will  be  no 
foreign  interference  with  us,  and  I  do  not  anticipate  it  at  any 
time,  unless  we  bring  it  on  ourselves  by  bad  management, 
which  I  do  not  expect.  Our  fate  is  in  our  own  hands,  and 
Europe  is  looking  on  to  see  which  side  is  the  strongest.  When 
it  has  made  the  discovery,  it  will  back  it  as  also  the  best  and 
the  most  moral.  Yesterday  I  had  my  audience  with  the 
Emperor.  He  received  me  with  much  cordiality,  and  seemed 
interested  in  a  long  account  which  I  gave  him  of  our  affairs. 
You  may  suppose  I  inculcated  the  Northern  views.  We  spoke 
in  his  vernacular,  and  he  asked  me  afterwards  if  I  was  a 
-German.  I  mention  this  not  from  vanity,  but  because  he  asked 
it  with  earnestness  and  as  if  it  had  a  political  significance.  Of 
•course,  I  undeceived  him.  His  appearance  interested  me  and 
his  manner  is  very  pleasing. 

Good-bye — all  our  loves  to  all. 

Ever  your  sincere  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 

Kernember  me  most  kindly  to  the  Club,  one  and  all.  I  have 
room  for  their  names  in  my  heart,  but  not  in  this  page. 

1  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 


44  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston, 
November  29^,  1861, 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  know  you  will  let  me  begin  with  my 
personal  story,  for  you  have  heard  before  this  time  about  Ball's- 
Bluff  and  its  disasters,  and  among  them  that  my  boy  came  in 
for  his  honourable  wounds.  Wendell's  experience  was  pretty 
well  for  a  youngster  of  twenty.  He  was  standing  in  front  of  his 
men  when  a  spent  ball  struck  him  in  the  stomach  and  knocked 
him  flat,  taking  his  wind  out  of  him  at  the  same  time.  He 
made  shift  to  crawl  off  a  little,  the  Colonel,  at  whose  side  he 
was  standing,  telling  him  to  go  to  the  rear.  Presently  he 
began  to  come  right,  and  found  he  was  not  seriously  injured. 
By  the  help  of  a  sergeant  he  got  up,  and  went  to  the  front 
again.  He  had  hardly  been  there  two  or  three  minutes  when 
he  was  struck  by  a  second  ball,  knocked  down  and  carried  off. 
His  shirt  was  torn  from  him,  and  he  was  found  to  be  shot 
through  the  heart — it  was  supposed  through  the  lungs.  The 
ball  had  entered  exactly  over  the  heart  on  the  left  side,  and 
come  out  on  the  right  side,  where  it  was  found — a  minie  ball. 
The  surgeon  thought  he  was  mortally  wounded ;  and  he 
supposed  so  too.  Next  day  better ;  next  after  that,  wrote  me 
a  letter.  Had  no  bad  symptoms,  and  it  became  evident  that 
the  ball  had  passed  outside  the  cavities  containing  the  heart 
and  lungs.  He  got  on  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  stayed  a 
week,  and  a  fortnight  ago  yesterday  I  brought  him  to  Boston 
on  a  bed  in  the  cars.  He  is  now  thriving  well,  able  to  walk, 
but  has  a  considerable  open  wound,  which,  if  the  bone  has  to 
exfoliate,  will  keep  him  from  camp  for  many  weeks  at  the 
least.  A  most  narrow  escape  from  instant  death  !  Wendell  is 
a  great  pet  in  his  character  of  young  hero  with  wounds  in  the 
heart,  and  receives  visits  en  grand  seigneur.  I  envy  my  white 
Othello,  with  a  semi-circle  of  young  Desdemonas  about  him 
listening  to  the  often  told  story  which  they  will  have  over 
again. 

You  know  how  well  all  our  boys  behaved.     In  fact,  the 
defeat  at  Ball's  Bluff,  disgraceful  as  it  was  to  the  planners  of 


1861.]  THE   "TRENT"   AFFAIR.  45 

the  stupid  sacrifice,  is  one  as  much  to  be  remembered  and  to 
be  proud  of  as  that  of  Bunker  Hill.  They  did  all  that  men 
could  be  expected  to  do,  and  the  courage  and  energy  of  some 
of  the  young  captains  saved  a  large  number  of  men  by  getting 
them  across  the  river  a  few  at  a  time,  at  the  imminent  risk  on 
their  own  part  of  being  captured  or  shot  while  crossing. 

I  can  tell  you  nothing  I  fear  of  public  matters  that  you  do 
<not  know  already.  How  often  I  thought  of  your  account  of 
the  Great  Armada,  when  our  own  naval  expedition  was  off, 
and  we  were  hearing  news  from  all  along  the  coast  of  the 
greatest  gale  which  had  blown  for  years  !  It  seemed  a  fatality, 
and  the  fears  we  felt  were  unutterable.  Imagine  what  delight 
it  was  when  we  heard  that  the  expedition  had  weathered  the 
gale,  and  met  with  entire  success  in  its  most  important  object. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
December  1st,  1861. 

MY  DEAEEST  MOTHER, — Your  letter  of  November  5th  reached 
us  a  few  days  ago.  It  is  always  a  great  delight  to  me  to 
receive  a  note,  however  short,  from  your  hand,  and  this  time  it 
was  a  nice,  long,  and  very  interesting  letter.  God  knows  how 
long  we  shall  be  able  to  correspond  at  all,  for  what  I  have  been 
dreading  more  than  anything  else  since  our  civil  war  began 
seems  now,  alas !  inevitable.  Before  this  reaches  you  the 
Southerners  have  obtained  an  advantage  which  all  their  generals 
and  diplomatists  would  not  have  procured  for  them  in  twenty 
years — the  alliance  of  England  and  the  assistance  of  her  fleets 
and  armies.  As  a  technical  point,  I  shall  ever  remain  of 
opinion  that  a  merchant  ship  like  the  Trent  is  no  portion  of 
neutral  soil,  and  that  therefore  it  is  no  asylum  for  any  indivi- 
dual against  a  ship  of  war  exercising  its  belligerent  rights  on 
the  high  seas.  The  jurisdiction  of  English  merchant  vessels 
is  municipal,  and  extends  only  to  its  own  subjects.  It  cannot 
legally  protect  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  against  the 
United  States  Government.  The  law  of  nations  prevails  on 


40  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II.. 

the  ocean,  and  the  law  of  war  is  a  part  of  that  code.  The  law 
of  war  allows  you  to  deal  with  your  enemy  where  you  can 
find  him,  and  to  intercept  an  ambassador  on  his  passage  to- 
a  neutral  country,  provided  you  can  do  it  without  violating 
neutral  soil.  A  ship  of  war  is  deemed  a  portion  of  its  sove- 
reign's soil ;  a  merchantman  is  not ;  so  that  if  the  Trent  was 
not  a  ship  of  war,  and  was  not  within  three  miles  of  a  neutral 
coast,  I  should  say  that  the  arrest  of  Mason  and  Slidell  was 
legal  according  to  public  laws  and  to  the  decisions  of  English 
admiralty,  and  according  to  the  uniform  practice  of  the 
English  cruisers  throughout  the  early  part  of  this  century, 
We  know  too  well  how  many  of  our  sailors  were  taken  from 
our  merchant  vessels  and  compelled  to  serve  against  nations 
at  peace  with  us.  But  all  this  signifies  nothing. 

The  English  Crown-lawyers  have  decided  that  the  arrest 
was  illegal,  and  it  is  certainly  not  in  accordance  with  the 
principles  which  we  formerly  sustained,  although  it  is  with 
the  English  practice.  So  England  has  at  last  the  opportunity 
which  a  very  large  portion  of  its  inhabitants  (although  not 
the  whole,  nor  perhaps  even  a  majority)  have  been  panting 
for,  and  they  step  into  the  field  with  the  largest  fleet  which 
the  world  has  ever  seen  as  champions  and  allies  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy.  If  the  commander  of  the  Jacinto  acted  accord- 
ing to  his  instructions,  I  hardly  see  how  we  are  to  extricate 
ourselves  from  this  dilemma,  and  it  remains  nevertheless  true 
that  Mason  and  Slidell  have  done  us  more  damage  now  than 
they  ever  could  have  done  as  diplomatists.  I  am  sorry  to 
have  taken  up  the  whole  of  my  letter  with  this  theme.  Our 
thoughts  are  of  nothing  else,  and  our  life  is  in  telegrams.  I 
never  expect  another  happy  hour,  and  am  almost  broken- 
hearted. My  whole  soul  was  in  the  cause  of  the  United  States 
Government  against  this  pro-slavery  mutiny,  and  I  never 
doubted  our  ultimate  triumph ;  but  if  the  South  has  now 
secured  the  alliance  of  England,  a  restoration  of  the  Union 
becomes  hopeless. 

We  are  on  very  good  terms  with  the  English  Ambassador 
here  and  Lady  Bloomfield,  and  they,  as  well  as  most  of  the 
members  of  the  Embassy,  have  always  expressed  themselves 


1861.]  THE  ARREST   OF   SLIDELL  AND  MASON.  47 

in  the  most  frank  and  sympathetic  language  in  regard  to  our 
Government  and  our  cause,  and  even  now  that  this  incident 
has  occurred,  Lord  Bloomfield,  in  discussing  the  matter  with 
me  last  night,  expressed  the  deepest  regret,  together  with  the 
most  earnest  hope  that  the  affair  might  be  arranged,  although 
neither  he  nor  I  can  imagine  how  such  a  result  is  to  be 
reached.  We  are,  as  you  may  suppose,  very  unhappy,  and 
have  really  nothing  to  say  about  our  life  here.  If  Yienna 
were  Paradise  it  would  be  gloomy  under  such  circumstances. 
Mary  and  Lily  are  both  well,  and  join  me  in  much  love  to 
you  and  my  father  and  all  the  family. 

I  shall  write  by  the  next  steamer,  if  only  a  single  page  like 
this.  Perhaps  the  communications  will  be  stopped  before 
your  answer  can  arrive. 

God  bless  you !     And  believe  me 

Your  ever  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 


Vienna, 
December  1st,  1861, 


MY  DARLING  LITTLE  MARY, — I  am  only  writing  you  a  note 
to  say  that  we  three  are  all  well,  but,  as  you  may  suppose,  most 
unhappy.  The  prospect  that  our  ports  are  to  be  blockaded  by 
the  English  fleets,  and  no  communications  possible  perhaps 

for  years,  fills  us  with  gloom We  have  just  received 

intelligence  that  the  English  Crown-lawyers  have  decided 
that  the  arrest  of  Mason  and  Slidell  was  illegal  and  an  insult 
to  England,  and  that  the  Government  has  decided  to  demand 
their  liberation,  together  with  an  apology  to  them  and  com- 
pensation. This  intelligence  is  only  telegraphic,  and  may  be 
exaggerated.  If  it  prove  genuine  it  is  simply  a  declaration 
of  war.  From  America  our  latest  dates  are  a  telegram,  dated 
November  15th,  announcing  the  arrival  of  Mason  and  Slidell 
at  Fortress  Monroe.  If  that,  too,  be  correct,  it  shows  that  the 
Government  had  no  intention  of  releasing  them,  and  of  course 


48  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

cannot  do  so  when  summoned  by  England.  Our  next  letters 
and  newspapers  should  arrive  to-morrow  or  next  day,  with 
dates  to  the  20th. 

With  regard  to  the  war,  we  have  only  the  rumoured,  but 
not  authentic,  intelligence  that  15,000  men  had  been  landed  by 
the  fleet  at  Beaufort.  Now  I  must  thank  you  for  your  nice, 
long,  interesting  letter  of  November  9-1 1th.  I  cannot  tell  you 
how  much  we  all  depend  upon  your  letters.  You  are  our  only 
regular  correspondent  and  mainstay.  You  cannot  write  too 
much,  or  give  us  too  many  details.  Everything  you  tell  us 
about  persons  is  deeply  interesting. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPAGEI.1 


To  Jus  Second  Daughter. 

December  IQth,  1861. 

MY  DEAKEST  LITTLE  MARY, — The  cotton  brokers  and 
spinners  have  been  making  a  great  row  about  the  blockade, 
and  the  Times,  half  official  organ  of  Government,  has  thrown 
off  all  disguise  and  conies  out  openly  as  the  supporter  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy  through  thick  a  ad  thin,  and  clamours 
for  war  with  America  and  cheap  cotton  and  free  trade  with 
Charleston  and  New  Orleans.  Just  now,  nobody  but  Bright 
has  the  manliness  to  lift  up  his  voice  in  the  midst  of  the 
storm.  You  will  see  and  read  his  magnificent  speech ;  but 
he  is  hated  and  feared  by  the  governing  classes  in  England. 
I  run  on  this  way  because  I  can  think  of  nothing  else. 
Perhaps  this  horrible  danger  may  blow  over.  Since,  I  have 
had  a  letter  from  Mr.  Adams,  and  feel  a  little  calmer ;  but 
I  fear  the  voice  of  the  mob  in  New  York.  I  repeat  we  can 
avoid  the  war  without  dishonour  by  holding  fast  to  the  prin- 
ciples always  maintained  by  us.2  As  to  the  expediency  of 
such  a  course,  provided  it  be  honourable,  nobody  out  of  a 

1  "  Parrot,"  a  familiar  signature  to          2  This  was  the  course  taken  by  the 
his  daughters.  Government  of  the  United  States. 


1861.]      THE  CRISIS  BETWEEN  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND.       49 

lunatic  asylum  can  doubt.  God  bless  you,  dear  child  !  write 
often  and  long  letters ;  we  depend  on  our  little  "  special  cor- 
respondent." Give  our  love  to  Grandpapa  and  Grandmama, 
all  our  dear  ones  at  home,  great  and  small. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


To  his  Mother. 


Vienna, 
December  IGth,  1861. 


MY  DEAREST  MOTHER. — It  is  painful  to  me  to  write  under 
such  circumstances,  but  I  suppose  it  is  better  to  send  a  line. 
While  I  write,  we  have  not  yet  received  a  telegram  of  the 
steamer  Asia,  to  leave  December  4th,  and  to  bring  the  Pre- 
sident's Message.  Perhaps,  before  this  note  is  posted  this 
afternoon,  it  will  arrive.  The  telegrams  are  always  sent  to  me 
in  manuscript  by  my  banker  here  very  soon  after  they  arrive, 
and  I  cannot  tell  you  the  sickening  feeling  of  anxiety  with 
which  we  look  at  the  little  bit  of  folded  paper  brought  in  by  a 
servant  on  a  salver,  which  I  always  take  up  between  my  thumb 
and  finger  with  loathing  as  if  it  were  a  deadly  asp  about  to 
sting  us.  If  the  President  does  not  commit  the  Government 
in  his  message  I  shall  breathe  again.  I  do  not  enter  into  the 
law  or  the  history.  I  simply  feel  that  if  a  war  is  to  take  place 
now  between  England  and  America,  I  shall  be  in  danger  of 
losing  my  reason.  To  receive  at  this  distance  those  awful 
telegrams  day  by  day  announcing  in  briefest  terms,  bombard- 
ment of  Boston ;  destruction  of  the  Federal  fleet ;  occupa- 
tion of  Washington  and  New  York  by  the  Confederates  and 
their  English  allies,  and  all  these  thousand  such  horrors,  while 
I  am  forced  to  sit  so  far  away,  will  be  too  much  to  bear. 

It  is  mere  brag  and  fustian  to  talk  about  fighting  England 
and  the  South  at  once,  and  I  have  a  strong  hope  that  Mr.  Chase, 
who  has  to  find  the  money,  and  General  McClellan,  who  knows 
whether  he  has  not  already  got  enough  on  his  own  shoulders, 
will  prevent  this  consummation  of  our  ruin.  If  we  are  capable 
of  taking  a  noble  stand  now,  if  we  hold  on  to  our  traditional 

VOL.   II.  E 


50  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  II. 

principle,  the  rights  of  neutrals  and  the  freedom  of  the  seas, 
instead  of  copying  the  ancient  practice  of  England,  we  shall 
achieve  the  greatest  possible  triumph.  We  shall  have  peace 
by  announcing  to  the  world  a  high  and  noble  policy,  instead  of 
desperate  warfare  by  adopting  an  abominable  one.  The  English 
Government  has  fortunately  given  us  a  chance  by  resting  their 
case  on  the  impropriety  of  allowing  a  naval  officer  to  act 
as  Judge  of  Admiralty.1  When  I  first  wrote  to  you  on  this 
subject  I  had  only  a  word  or  two  of  information  by  telegraph, 
and  that  was  exaggerated.  The  English  demand  seemed  a 
declaration  of  war.  It  appears  that  it  is  not  so,  and  I  have 
still  a  faint  hope.  I  will  say  no  more  on  the  subject.  We  are 
beginning  to  get  accustomed  to  Vienna.  It  is  a  sombre  place 
at  first,  and  our  feelings  about  home  just  now  would  serve  as  a 
pall  for  the  mansions  of  the  blest.  The  diplomatic  corps  are 
all  friendly  and  cordial  and  we  are  beginning  to  see  something 
of  the  Viennese.  But  I  have  no  heart  for  anything.  • 

God  bless  you,  my  dear  mother  !     Heaven  grant  that  there 
may  be  some  better  news  coming ! 

Your  ever  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 

P.S. — I  have  just  got  a  telegram  that  the  President  does  not 
mention  the  Trent  affair.     This  is  a  blessed  sign. 

1  This  point  was  treated  fully  in      Minister,  announcing  the  release    of 
Mr.    Seward's    letter    to    the  British      Messrs.  Slidell  and  Mason. 


CHAPTER  III. 

VIENNA  (1862) — continued. 

Mr.  Bright's  letter  on  the  Trent  affair,  negotiations,  and  on  the  blockade- 
Settlement  of  the  Trent  affair— The  War  and  Slavery  Party  in  England- 
Society  in  Vienna — Compared  with  that  in  London — Austrian  sympathy 
with  the  North— Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— The  South  and  slavery — 
Mr.  Conway — Letter  from  Lord  Wensleydale  on  International  Questions 
and  Law — Vienna  theatres — The  privilege  of  prophesying — *  Songs  in 
many  keys ' — Feeling  in  England  towards  the  North — Democracy  in  Eng- 
land and  America — The  prospect  in  America — Slavery  must  be  abolished — 
A  policy  of  "Thorough'' — Lowell's  'Yankee  Idyll' — The  Archduke 
Ferdinand  Maximilian — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Mr.  Quincy — En- 
thusiasm on  capture  of  Fort  Donelson — The  Court  in  Vienna — "  Compromise 
was  killed  at  Sumter" — Achievements  of  the  North — The  Canal — The 
Monitor — General  Burnside — What  is  to  come  after  the  war  ? — Reflections 
on  the  war — The  Union  must  survive — Eulogium  of  Lincoln— The  Sove- 
reignty of  the  People — Louis  Napoleon's  endeavour  to  induce  England  to 
join  in  the  war — General  McClellan — The  Richmond  battles — Abraham 
Hay  ward — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Forecasts — Rumours  from  the 
front — Enthusiasm  at  Boston — Reflections  on  the  war— General  McClellan— 
Concentration  of  troops  on  the  Rappahannock — Cedar  Mount  Battle - 
Letter  from  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  on  the  war — Mr.  Dicey's  '  Notes  of  a  Journey  in 
America ' — Laws  and  rights  of  war — A  letter  from  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill — Lincoln's 
Anti-Slavery  Proclamation — English  and  French  sympathy  with  the  North 
— Action  of  the  English  Government — Incidents  of  the  War — Elections  in 
America — French  policy — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— The  mischief  of 
"Mercantile  Materialism" — The  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia — Mr.  Froude's 
and  T.  Caiiyle's  Histories— General  Wadsworth— Death  of  Mrs.  d'Hauteville 
— Results  of  Elections. 

From  Mr.  John  Bright. 

Rochdale, 
January  9th,  1862. 

I  EECEIVED  your  letter  with  great  pleasure,  and  I  should  have 
•written  to  you  sooner  save  for  the  sore  anxiety  which  has 
pressed  upon  me  of  late  in  dread  of  the  calamity  from  which 
escape  seemed  so  unlikely.  The  news  received  here  last 
night,  if  correct,  gives  us  reason  to  believe  that  the  imme- 
diate danger  is  over,  and  that  your  Government,  looking  only 
to  the  great  interests  of  the  Union,  has  had  the  wisdom  and 
the  courage  to  yield,  in  the  face  of  menaces  calculated  to 

E  2 


52  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

excite  the  utmost  passion,  and  such  as  it  would  not  have  been 
subjected  to  had  the  internal  tranquillity  of  the  Union  been 
•  undisturbed.  What  has  happened  will  leave  a  great  griev- 
ance in  the  minds  of  your  people,  and  may  bear  evil  fruit 
hereafter — for  there  has  been  shown  them  no  generosity  such 
as  became  a  friendly  nation,  and  no  sympathy  with  them  in 
their  great  calamity.  I  must  ask  you,  however,  to  understand 
that  all  Englishmen  are  not  involved  in  this  charge.  Our 
ruling  class,  by  a  natural  instinct,  hates  democratic  and 
republican  institutions,  and  it  dreads  the  example  of  the 
United  States  upon  its  own  permanency  here.  You  have  a 
sufficient  proof  of  this  in  the  violence  with  which  I  have  been 
assailed  because  I  pointed  to  the  superior  condition  of  your 
people,  and  to  the  economy  of  your  Government,  and  to  the 
absence  of  "  foreign  politics  "  in  your  policy,  saving  you  from 
the  necessity  of  great  armaments  and  wars  and  debt.  The 
people  who  form  what  is  called  "  society "  at  the  "  West 
End  "  of  London,  whom  you  know  well  enough,  are  as  a  class 
wishful  that  your  democratic  institutions  should  break  down, 
and  that  your  country  should  be  divided  and  enfeebled.  I 
am  not  guessing  at  this ;  I  know  it  to  be  true ;  and  it  will 
require  great  care  on  the  part  of  all  who  love  peace  to 
prevent  further  complications  and  dangers. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  discussions  of  the  last  month 
and  of  the  moderation  and  courage  of  your  Government  has 
been  favourable  to  the  North,  and  men  have  looked  with 
amazement  and  horror  at  the  project  of  enlisting  England  on 
the  side  of  slavedom  ;  and  I  am  willing  to  hope  that  as  your 
Government  shows  strength  to  cope  with  the  insurrection, 
opinion  here  will  go  still  more  in  the  right  direction.  The  only 
danger  I  can  see  is  in  the  blockade  and  in  the  interruption  of 
the  supply  of  cotton.  .  The  Governments  of  England  and 
France  may  imagine  that  it  would  relieve  the  industry  of  the 
two  countries  to  raise  the  blockade;  but  this  can  only  be 
done  by  negotiation  with  your  Government  or  by  making  war 
upon  it.  I  don't  see  how  your  Government  can  at  present 
consent  to  do  it,  and  if  it  has  some  early  success^the  idea  of 
war  may  be  abandoned  if  it  has  already  been  entertained. 


1862.]  SETTLEMENT   OF  THE   "TRENT"  AFFAIR.  53 

Charleston  Harbour  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past;  if  New 
Orleans  and  Mobile  were  in  possession  of  the  Government, 
then  the  blockade  might  be  raised  without  difficulty,  for 
Savannah  might,  I  suppose,  easily  be  occupied.  Trade  might* 
be  interdicted  at  all  other  Southern  ports  and  opened  at  New 
Orleans,  Mobile,  and  Savannah  under  the  authority  of  the 
'Government.  Thus  duties  would  begin  to  be  received,  and 
cotton  would  begin  to  come  down,  if  there  be  any  men  in  the 
interior  who  are  disposed  to  peace  and  who  prefer  the  Union 
and  safety  to  secession  and  ruin. 

I  hope  all  may  go  well.  The  whole  human  race  has  a  deep 
interest  in  your  success.  The  restoration  of  your  Union  and 
the  freedom  of  the  negro,  or  the  complete  control  of  what 
slavery  may  yet  remain,  are  objects  for  which  I  hope  with  an 
anxiety  not  exceeded  by  that  of  any  man  born  on  American 
soil,  and  my  faith  is  strong  that  I  shall  see  them  accomplished. 

I  sent  your  message  to  Mr.  Cobden  ;  he  is  anxious  on  the 
blockade  question ;  but  I  hope  his  fears  may  not  be  realised. 

When  you  come  back  to  England  I  shall  expect  to  see  you, 
and  I  trust  by  that  time  the  sky  may  be  clearer. 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  BRIGHT. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
January  13th,  1862. 

DEAREST  LITTLE  MARY, — The  cloud  has  blown  over  for  the 
present,  at  least,  and  the  war  with  England  has  been  averted 
by  the  firmness,  tact,  prudence,  and  sense  of  right  displayed 
by  our  Government.  I  have  been  thinking,  talking,  writing 
so  much  of  this-  Trent  affair,  that  I  am  determined  not  to  fill 
my  letters  with  it  any  longer  now  that  it  is  settled.  I  will, 
however,  make  one  observation  in  regard  to  England.  We 
must  not  confound  the  efforts  of  the  war  faction  in  that  country 
with  the  whole  nation.  By  so  doing  we  commit  a  great  in- 
justice, and  do  ourselves  an  immense  injury.  There  is  a  strong 
pro-slavery  party  in  England  which  has  almost  thrown  off  all 


54  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  Ill, 

disguise  in  their  fury  in  regard  to  the  Trent  affair.    This  party 
seized  upon  the  first  plausible  pretext  that  had  been  offered  to 
them  since  our  civil  war  began,  and  used  it  with  all  their 
energy  to  bring  about  the  instant  recognition  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  the  raising  of  the  blockade,  and  a  destructive 
war  against  us.     There  has  been  a  daily  manifestation  of  pro 
slavery  sympathy  in  the  Tory  party  in  England,  shared  to  a 
considerable  extent  by  a  certain  portion  of  the  Whigs.     The 
course  of  the  Government  of  England  has  been  courteous  and 
proper,  and  we  make  a  mistake  in  attributing  too  much  im- 
portance to  the  manifestations  of  the  press.     As  a  member  of 
the  English  Cabinet  says  to  me  in  a  letter  written  so  soon  as- 
the  news  of  peace  came,  in  order  to  express  his  joy  and  sympa- 
thise with  mine : — "  What  mischief  the  press  of  both  countries 
has  been  doing !     Your  people  quote  our  Times ;  we  quote  the 
New  York  Herald,  and  mutual  exasperation  is  natural  enough." 
This  is  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  as  sincere  and  warm  a  friend  to 
America  and  to  everything  good  in  it  as  any  one  of  our  own 
countrymen.     I  had  a  letter  from  Layard,  Under-Secretary  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  written  in  the  same  spirit. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  large  and  strong  party,, 
probably  a  majority,  that  hates  the  idea  of  a  war  with  America> 
and  is  much  relieved  by  the  pacific  termination  to  this 
quarrel.  On  the  other  hand,  no  doubt,  the  pro-slavery 
faction  is  very  active  and  noisy,  and  we  shall  have  no  end 
of  efforts  in  the  coming  session  of  Parliament  to  procure  the 
recognition  of  the  slave  confederacy.  One  thing  is  perfectly 
certain,  if  we  continue  to  dally  with  the  subject  of  emanci- 
pation much  longer,  and  continue  our  efforts  to  suppress 
the  rebellion  without  daring  to  lay  a  finger  on  its  cause,  we 
shall  have  the  slave  confederacy  recognized  by  all  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe  before  midsummer.  The  pro-slavery  party  in 
England  dare  not  avow  itself  in  favour  of  slavery,  for  that  in- 
stitution is  so  odious  to  the  great  mass  of  the  English  nation 
as  to  consign  any  party  openly  supporting  it  to  destruction ; 
but  it  contents  itself  with  persuading  the  public  that  slavery 
has  nothing  to  do  with  secession,  that  the  North  is  no  more 
anti-slavery  than  the  South,  and  that  therefore  all  the  sympa- 


1862.]  SOCIETY  IN  VIENNA  AND  LONDON.  55 

thies  of  liberal  Englishmen  ought  to  be  given  to  the  weaker 
of  the  two  sections  which  is  striving  by  a  war  of  self-defence 
to  relieve  itself  from  a  tyrannical  oppression,  and  so  on.  An 
answer  to  this  insidious  reasoning  will,  I  hope,  be  soon  fur- 
nished by  the  action  of  Congress. 

My  dear  child,  I  have  been  writing  to  you  as  if  you  were 
Mr.  Seward  or  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  I  have  half  a  mind  to 
scratch  your  name  from  the  top  of  the  letter  and  substitute 
that  of  one  of  these  worthies.  However,  you  have  become 
such  a  furious  politician,  that  I  daresay  you  will  excuse  such 
a  long  political  letter.  Your  last  letter,  of  December  23,  gave 
us  much  pleasure,  as  do  all  your  letters.  You  cannot  give  us 
too  many  details,  or  write  too  much  or  too  often.  We  think 
of  nothing  but  America  now. 

I  cannot  tell  you  much  about  Vienna.  Yesterday  your 
mother  and  I  went  to  a  great  diplomatic  dinner  at  Prince 
Liechtenstein's.  About  thirty  people,  mostly  dips.  The 
Prince  is  kind-hearted,  genial,  with  charming  manners.  The 
Princess  very  much  the  same.  In  the  absence  of  the  Court, 
on  account  of  the  illness  of  the  Empress,  they  do  a  little 
entertaining  in  a  kind  of  vice-regal  way.  Last  week  we 
all  turned  out  in  cocked-hats  and  laced  coats  to  make  an 
evening  call,  in  order  to  express  New  Year's  wishes  and  ask 
after  the  health  of  the  Emperor  and  Empress.  We  had  an 
extremely  pleasant  dinner  at  Prince  Esterhazy's,  and  we  dine 
occasionally  with  our  colleagues  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  many 
of  whom  are  very  agreeable.  To-morrow  night  is  the  first 
ball  of  the  season.  It  is  the  first  of  a  set  called  pic-nics, 
the  Vienna  Almack's  subscription  balls  for  the  creme  de  la 
creme.  Lily  will  give  you  an  account  of  it  when  she  writes 
next  week.  The  winter  is  not  likely  to  be  gay,  but  I  feel 
already  a  little  better  disposed  to  look  for  blue  sky  now  that 
our  Government,  and  especially  our  much-abused  Secretary  of 
State,  have  manifested  so  much  magnanimity  and  real  states- 
manship. I  never  felt  so  much  confidence  as  I  do  now  in  the 
Washington  authorities. 

I  do  not  yet  begin  to  enjoy  society !  Much  English  society 
I  regret  almost  to  say,  is  very  spoiling  for  any  other  kind 


56  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IIT. 

Yet  there  is  a  great  charm  of  manner  about  the  Austrians. 
The  great  distinction  between  Vienna  and  London  company 
is  that  here  the  fine  world  is  composed  exclusively  of  folks  of 
rank  and  title ;  there,  every  illustration  from  the  world  of 
science,  art,  letters,  politics,  and  finance  mingle  in  full  pro- 
portions with  the  patricians,  and  on  equal  terms.  Society  so 
constituted  must  be  entertaining  and  instructive. 


To  liis  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
January  22nd,  18G2. 

DEAKEST  LITTLE  MARY, — There  is  much  sympathy  for  us  in 
Austria,  more  I  should  say  than  in  any  country  in  Europe.  The 
most  widely-circulated  journal  of  Vienna,  Die  Presse,  has  a 
leading  article  almost  every  day  on  the  subject,  as  warm,  as 
strong,  as  sympathetic,  and  as  well  informed  even  to  the 
minutest  details  as  if  it  were  written  in  Washington  or  Boston. 
This  moment  I  have  been  interrupted  by  a  visit  from  a  field 
marshal,  whom  I  did  not  know,  but  who  introduced  himself  to 
ask  my  advice  about  a  young  military  friend  who  wished  to 
serve  in  our  army.  Another  gentleman  called  yesterday  in 
behalf  of  a  young  man,  son  of  one  of  the  Ministers  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Baden.  I  receive  letters  daily  from  officers 
in  all  parts  of  Austria,  and  two  or  three  warriors  were  here  this 
morning  before  I  was  up.  I  could  have  furnished  half-a-dozen 
regiments  since  I  have  been  here,  but  of  course  I  can  only 
say  that  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  War  Department,  and 
that  any  one  who  wishes  to  try  his  chance  must  betake  himself 
to  Washington. 

Lily  has  been  to  two  or  three  balls,  and  enjoyed  herself. 
The  picnic  balls,  something  like  Almack's,  are  once  a  fort- 
night. The  first  took  place  last  week,  and  Lily  danced  till 
three.  She  went  with  her  mother,  and  I  was  allowed  to  stay 
at  home,  as  it  is  not  very  amusing  for  an  elderly  party  like  me 
to  look  on  at  the  mazy  dance. 

Ever  your  affectionate 

PAPAGEI. 


1862.]  SLAVERY   IN  THE   SOUTH.  57 

From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston, 
February  3rd,  1862. 

....  We  are  the  conquerors  of  nature — they l  of  nature's 
weaker  children.     We  thrive  on  reverses  and  disappointments. 
I  have  never  believed  they  could  endure  them.     Like  Prince 
Eupert's  drops,  the  un annealed  fabric  of  rebellion  shuts  an 
explosive  element  in  its  resisting  shell  that  will  rend  it  in 
pieces  as  soon  as  its  tail,  not  its  head,  is  fairly  broken  off. 
That  is  what  I  think — I,  safe  prophet  of  a  private  correspon- 
dence, free  to  be  convinced  of  my  own  ignorance  and  pre- 
sumption by  events  as  they  happen,  and  to  prophesy  again, 
for  what  else  do  we  live  for  but  to  guess  the  future,  in  small 
things  or  great,  that  we  may  help  to  shape  it  or  ourselves  to 
it  ?     Your  last  letter  was  so  full  of  interest  by  the  expression 
of  your  own   thoughts  and  the  transcripts  of  those  of  your 
English  friends,  especially  the  words  of  John  Bright — one  of 
the  two  foreigners  that  I  want  to  see  and  thank,  the  other 
being  Count  Gasparin — that   I   feel   entirely  inadequate   to 
make  any  fitting  return  for  it.     I  meet  a  few  wise  persons  who 
for  the  most  part  know  little  ;  some  who  know  a  good  deal  but 
are  not  wise.     I  was  at  a  dinner  at  Parker's  the  other  day, 
where  Governor  Andrew  and  Emerson  and  various  unknown 
dingy-linened    friends  met  to  hear  Mr.  Conway,  the  not  un- 
famous  Unitarian  minister  of  Washington,  Virginia  born,  with 
seventeen  secesh  cousins,  fathers  and  other  relatives,  tell  of 
his  late  experiences  at  the  seat  of  Government.  He  had  talked 
a  while  with  Father  Abraham,  who,  as  he  thinks,  is  honest 
enough.     He  himself  is  an  out-and-out  immediate  emancipa- 
tionist, believes  that  is  the  only  way  to  break  the  strength  of 
the  South,  that  the  black  man  is  the  life  of  the  South,  that  the 
Southerners  dread  work  above  all  things,  and  cling  to  the 
slave  as  the  drudge  that  makes  life  tolerable  to  them.     He 
believes  that  the  blacks  know  all  that  is  said  and  done  with 
reference  to  them  in  the  North  ;  that  their  longing  for  free- 
dom is  unutterable  ;  that  once  assured  of  it  under  Northern 
protection,  the  institution  would  be  doomed.     I  don't  know 
1  The  Confederates. 


58  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  III. 

whether  you  remember  Con  way's  famous  "  One  Path  "  sermon 
of  six  or  eight  years  ago.  It  brought  him  immediately  into 
notice.  I  think  it  was  Judge  Curtis  (Ben)  who  commended  it 
to  my  attention.  He  talked  with  a  good  deal  of  spirit.  I  know 
you  would  have  gone  with  him  in  his  leading  ideas.  Speaking* 
of  the  communication  of  knowledge  among  the  slaves,  he 
said  if  he  were  on  the  Upper  Mississippi  and  proclaimed 
emancipation,  it  would  be  told  in  New  Orleans  before  the 
telegraph  would  carry  the  news  there. 

I  am  busy  with  my  lectures  at  the  college,  and  don't  see 
much  of  the  world,  but  I  will  tell  you  what  I  see  and  hear 
from  time  to  time,  if  you  like  to  have  me.  I  gave  your 
message  to  the  Club,  who  always  listen  with  enthusiasm  when 
your  name  is  mentioned.  My  boy  is  here  still,  detailed  on 
recruiting  duty,  quite  well.  I  hope  you  are  all  well,  and  free 
from  all  endemic  irritations  such  as  Sir  Thomas  Brown  refers 
to  when  he  says  that  "  cholical  persons  will  find  little  comfort 
in  Austria  or  Vienna." 

With  kindest  remembrances  to  you  all, 

Yours  always, 

0.  W.  H. 


From  Lord  Wensleydale. 

Ampthill, 
February  7th,  1862; 

MY  DEAK  MOTLEY, — My  dear  wife  and  myself  have  had 
for  weeks  past  a  great  longing  to  hear  something  about  you 
and  your  belongings.  As  I  do  not  know  how  to  gain  in- 
formation on  that  not  uninteresting  subject  from  any  other 
quarter,  I  must  ask  you  myself  how  you  are  all  going  on.  I 
did  hear,  some  month  or  two  ago,  that  Mrs.  Motley  and  your 
daughters  were  going  to  spend  a  part  of  the  winter  at  Pau ;. 
two  or  three  weeks  since  I  was  told  this  was  inaccurate,  and 
that  you  are  now  all  at  Vienna  together,  which  is  much  more 
satisfactory,  no  doubt,  to  you  and  your  friends. 

I  hope  you  all  found  it  as  agreeable  as  we  did  on  two- 
different  occasions  when  we  spent  some  days  there  in  1835 


1862,]  INTERNATIONAL  QUESTIONS.  59- 

and  1853.  To  be  sure  you  do  not  live  among  a  free  people, 
as  you  and  I  have  been  accustomed  to  do,  but  you  live, 
as  I  have  found,  amongst  a  people  full  of  bonhomie  and 
kindness,  well-disposed  and  quiet,  with  a  fair  admixture  of 
intelligence,  brave  and  loyal ;  and  it  sometimes  happens  that 
our  freedom  prevents  our  being  so  agreeable.  We  found 
abundant  civility  from  Esterhazy,  whom  I  daresay  you  know. 
I  was  in  great  anxiety  at  the  time  of  the  unfortunate  affair  of 
the  Trent.  How  I  should  have  hated  to  be  at  war  with  your 
free  and  great  country !  How  unfeignedly  I  rejoiced  to  hear 
the  almost  unexpected  news  that  the  dispute  was  settled,  and 
how  sincerely  I  hope  that  no  other  event  will  occur  to  prevent 
us  remaining  at  peace  with  each  other  for  ever !  Your  im- 
mediate fellow-countrymen,  the  Northerners,  have  much  too 
strong  a  feeling  that  we  do  not  wish  them  well.  The  Times 
and  other  papers  have  dealt  so  much  and  so  long  in  abuse  and 
insolent  remarks,  and  are  in  such  circulation  here,  that  your 
fellow-countrymen  assume  they  express  the  public  feeling, 
which  I  think  is  far  from  being  the  case.  No  doubt  we  were  pro- 
voked by  the  proceeding  of  Captain  Wilkes.  The  sentiment 
was  unanimous  and  intense,  but  as  the  act  has  been  disavowed 
(and  it  could  not  possibly  have  been  justified),  the  feeling  is 
rapidly  dying  away,  and  I  hope  we  shall  continue  good  friends, 
and  I  am  sure  we  shall  endeavour  to  act  with  perfect  neutrality 
between  the  belligerents,  for  such  they  must  be  considered  to 
be,  though  you  were,  in  my  opinion,  perfectly  right  in  those 
two  letters  you  published  in  the  early  part  of  the  summer,  when 
you  proved  the  Southerners  then  to  be  rebels.  We  lawyers 
feel  rather  inclined  to  be  surprised  that  so  much  bad  inter- 
national law  should  be  laid  down  by  such  authorities  as  Messrs. 
Everett,  Seward,  G-.  and  C.  Sumner.  There  is  but  one  opinion 
on  that  subject  among  us.  Most  of  them  relied  upon  a  dictum 
of  Lord  Stowell,  not  fully  explained  in  our  treatises  on  inter- 
national law,  viz.,  that  ambassadors  were  seizable  whilst  pro- 
ceeding from  a  belligerent  to  a  neutral  country.  All  that  was 
meant  was  that  an  ambassador  was  seizable  in  passing  through 
the  country  of  a  belligerent — that  his  diplomatic  character 
would  not  protect  him  there. 


60  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

The  last  despatches  of  Earl  Russell,  stating  the  legal  argu- 
ment, are  very  good — all  the  legal  parts  the  Solicitor-General's, 
Roundell  Palmer.  This  was  mentioned  last  night  in  the 
House  of  Lords. 

I  hope  what  the  noble  Earl  and  also  Lord  Granville  said  as 
to  futiire  conduct  on  our  part,  may  not  be  unacceptable  in 
America. 

My  Lady  is  a  great  sufferer  from  gout,  having  been  since 
Saturday  in  bed.  I  began  the  New  Year  with  a  week  of  bed 
from  the  same  cause.  I  am  now  well. 

She  desires  her  kindest  remembrances  to  your  ladies  and 
yourself,  and  sincere  good  wishes  for  your  prosperity.  I  agree 
most  truly. 

Believe  me, 

Yours  very  sincerely, 

WENSLEYDALE. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
February  16th,  1862. 

MY  DARLING  MARY, — You  complain  of  not  getting  letters 
often  enough,  and  you  think  I  might  write  more  than  I  do. 
But,  my  dear  child,  you  must  remember  how  little  of  interest 
we  have  to  speak  to  you  about,  and  how  many  correspond- 
ents. I  have  this  moment  counted  the  letters  lying  un- 
answered on  my  table.  There  are  seventeen.  And  yet  I 
write  letters  all  day  long.  I  do  not  complain,  for  I  am  so 
greedy  to  receive  letters  from  America  that  I  am  very  willing 
to  do  my  part  in  the  correspondence.  You  are  where  all  our 
interests  and  all  our  thoughts  are.  Here,  when  I  have  told 
you  that  your  mamma  and  Lily  and  I  are  well,  and  that  Susie 
was  jolly  by  the  last  accounts,  I  have  said  all.  Our  life  is 
very  humdrum.  Once  in  a  while  we  dine  out,  not  very  often, 
and  the  dinner  is  not  an  institution  as  in  London.  The  hour 
is  generally  five,  and  it  is  all  over  by  seven,  for  that  is  the 
hour  at  which  the  theatre  begins,  and  everybody  thinks  it 
necessary  to  go,  or  to  make  believe  to  go,  either  to  the  opera 


1862.]  VIENNA  THEATRES.  61 

or  the  theatre.  Both  these  houses  are  very  small  for  a  large 
town,  and  all  the  boxes  are  taken  by  the  season,  so  that  it  is 
only  when  some  of  our  friends  send  us  a  box  that  we  can  go. 
In  self-defence,  when  the  season  for  hiring  arrives,  we  must 
take  one. 

The  opera  house  is  tolerably  good,  the  singing  so-so.  The 
theatre,  the  Burg  Theatre,  as  it  is  called,  because  it  makes  part 
of  the  Imperial  castle  or  palace,  is  the  funniest,  shabbiest, 
ramshackle  old  place  you  can  imagine.  The  chandelier  would 
hardly  give  sufficient  light  for  an  ordinary  saloon.  There  are 
two  little  rows  of  about  a  dozen  oil  lamps  in  it,  and  one  with  a 
few  more.  You  can  hardly  see  across  the  house,  although  it 
is  very  narrow  and  as  straight  as  an  omnibus.  All  your 
friends  and  acquaintances  are  in  the  boxes,  and  you  can  just 
discern  their  noble  features  glimmering  through  the  darkness. 
En  revanche  the  acting  is  excellent.  Every  part  is  well  sus- 
tained in  comedy  and  farce,  and  there  are  one  or  two  rather 
remarkable  actors.  I  have  not  yet  seen  a  tragedy;  we  are 
sufficiently  dismal  in  the  world  without  weeping  over  fictitious 
woes.  On  the  whole,  there  is  something  to  my  mind  rather 
aristocratic  and  imperial  in  this  very  shabby  dingy  little 
theatre,  with  its  admirable  acting,  with  its  boxes  filled  with 
Archdukes  and  Princes  and  Ambassadors.  You  can  have 
gorgeously  gilt,  brand-new  theatres  anywhere  in  Paris  or 
Buffalo,  but  you  would  find  it  difficult  to  find  so  select  a  set 
of  actors  and  spectators. 

Lily  has  been  to  a  few  balls,  all  that  have  been  given,  the 
picnics — five  of  them  subscription  assemblies,  like  Almack's 
or  Papanti's.  The  last  one— the  most  brilliant  of  the  season— 
at  Marquis  Pallavicini's,  she  lost,  because  it  was  on  a  Sunday. 
To-morrow  night  we  go  to  one  at  Prince  Schwarzenberg's, 
Avhich  will  be  very  fine,  I  doubt  not,  and,  as  they  say,  the  last 
of  the  season.  You  see  we  do  not  lead  very  dissipated  lives. 
We  take  the  deepest  interest  in  American  affairs.  In  truth, 
we  never  think  or  talk  of  anything  else. 

Your  loving 

PAPA. 


62  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

To  Dr.  0.  W.  -Holmes. 

Legation  of  the  U.S.  America,  Vienna, 
February  2Gth,  1862. 

MY  DEAE  HOLMES, — You  are  the  most  generous  and  de- 
lightful of  correspondents  and  friends.     I  have  two  long  and 
most  interesting  letters  of  yours  to  acknowledge.     The  first  of 
7th  January,  the  second  of  3rd  February.     They  are  exactly 
the  kind  of  letters  which   I   most   value.     I  want  running- 
commentaries  on  men  and  events  produced  on  such  a  mind 
•as  yours  by  the  rapidly  developing  history  of  our  country 
at  its   most  momentous    crisis.      I   take   great   pleasure   in 
reading  your  prophecies,  and  intend  to  be  just   as  free  in 
hazarding  my  own,  for,  as  you  so  well  say,  our  mortal  life  is 
but  a  string  of  guesses  at  the  future,  and  no  one  but  an  idiot 
would  be  discouraged  at  finding  himself  sometimes  far  out  in 
his  calculations.     If  I  find  you  signally  right  in  any  of  your 
predictions,  be  sure  that  I  will  congratulate  and  applaud.     If 
you  make  mistakes,  you  shall  never  hear  of  them  again,  and  I 
promise  to  forget  them.     Let  me  ask  the  same  indulgence 
from  you  in  return.      This  is   what   makes   letter-writing  a 
comfort  and  journalism  dangerous.    For  this  reason,  especially 
as  I  am  now  in  an  official  position,  I  have  the  greatest  horror 
lest  any  of  my  crudities  should  get  into  print.     I  have  also  to 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  a  few  lines  by  Wendell.     They 
gave  me  very  great  pleasure.     I  am  delighted  to  hear  of  his 
entire  recovery,  and  I  suppose  you  do  not  object,  so  much  as 
he  does,  to  his  being  detained  for   a   time   from   camp  by 
recruiting  service.    I  shall  watch  his  career  with  deep  interest. 
Just  now  we  are  intensely  anxious  about  the  Burnside  expe- 
dition, of  which,  as  you  know,  my  nephew  Lewis  Stackpole  is 
one.     He  is  almost  like  my  son.     I  feel  very  proud  of  his  fine 
intellectual  and  manly  qualities,  and  although  it  is  a  sore 
trial  to  his  mother  to  part  with  him,  yet  I  am  sure  that  she 
would  in  future  days  have   regretted  his  enrolment  in  the 
"  stay-at-home  rangers." 

That  put  me  in  mind  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  <  Songs 
in  many  Keys.'     It  lies  on  our  drawing-room  table,  and  is 


1862.]  'SONGS  IN  MANY  KEYS.'  63 

constantly  in  our  hands.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  pleasure 
I  derived  from  it.  Many  of  the  newer  pieces  I  already  know 
by  heart,  and  admire  them  as  much  as  you  know  I  have  always 
done  their  predecessors.  The  *  Ballad '  is  in  a  new  vein  for 
you,  and  is  I  think  most  successful.  If  I  might  venture  to 
mention  the  separate  poems  by  name  which  most  please  me,  I 
should  certainly  begin  with  '  Iris,  her  Book,'  *  Under  the 
Violets/  'The  Voiceless,'  which  are  full  of  tenderness  and 
music.  Then  the  clarion  ring  of  the  verses  for  the  centennial 
celebration  of  Burns  has  an  immense  charm  for  me,  and  so  the 
trumpet  tones  of  the  *  Voice  of  the  Loyal  North ';  but  I  should 
go  on  a  long  time  if  I  tried  to  express  my  honest  and 
hearty  admiration  for  the  volume  as  fully  as  it  deserves.  I 
thank  you  most  sincerely  for  it,  and  I  assure  you  that  you 
increase  in  fulness  and  power  and  artistic  finish  without 
losing  any  of  your  youthful  freshness  of  imagination.  I  am 
glad  that  the  Emperor  had  the  sense  to  appreciate  your '  Vive 
la  France.'  I  agree  with  him  that  it  is  " plein  d 'inspiration 
and  exceedingly  happy."  I  admire  it  the  more  because  for 
the  moment  it  communicated  to  me  the  illusion  under  the 
spell  of  which  you  wrote  it.  For  of  course  France  hates  us  as 
much  as  England  does,  and  Louis  Napoleon  is  capable  of 
playing  us  a  trick  at  any  moment. 

I  am  obliged  to  reason  like  a  Cosmopolite.  The  English 
have  a  right  to  hate  America  if  they  instinctively  feel  that 
the  existence  of  a  great,  powerful,  prosperous,  democratic 
republic  is  a  standing  menace  to  the  tenure  of  their  own  privi- 
leges. I  think  the  instinct  false,  however,  to  a  certain  extent. 
Physical,  historical,  and  geographical  conditions  make  our 
democratic  commonwealth  a  possibility,  while  they  are  nearly 
all  wanting  in  England.  I  do  not  think  the  power  or  glory  or 
prosperity  of  the  English  monarchy  any  menace  to  our  insti- 
tutions. I  think  it  an  unlucky  and  unreasoning  perverseness 
which  has  led  the  English  aristocracy  to  fear  our  advance  in 
national  importance.  I  do  not  mean  that,  on  the  whole,  the 
Government  has  behaved  ill  to  us.  Especially  international 
dealings  with  us  have  been  courteous  and  conciliatory.  I  like 
personally  English  ways,  English  character,  Englishmen  and 


64  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  Ill . 

Englishwomen.  It  is  a  great  empire  in  arts  and  arms,  and 
their  hospitalities  are  very  pleasant.  Nevertheless  I  love  my 
own  country  never  so  much  as  at  this  moment.  Never  did  I 
feel  so  strong  a  faith  in  her  destiny  as  now.  Of  John  Bright 
we  have  already  spoken,  and  of  the  daily  and  noble  battle 
waged  for  us  by  the  Daily  News  (which  I  hope  you  read)  ;  and 
now  how  must  we  all  rejoice  at  the  magnificent  essay  in. 
Frasers  Magazine  by  the  acknowledged  chief  of  English 
thinkers,  John  Stuart  Mill ! 

It  is  awful  to  reflect  that  the  crisis  of  our  fate  is  so  rapidly 
approaching.  The  ides  of  March  will  be  upon  us  before  this 
letter  reaches  you.  We  have  got  to  squash  the  rebellion  soon, 
or  be  squashed  for  ever  as  a  nation — aut  fer,  aut  feri.  I  do 
not  pretend  to  judge  military  plans  or  the  capacity  of  generals  :} 
but,  as  you  suggest,  perhaps  I  can  take  a  more  just  view  of 
the  whole  picture  of  this  eventful  struggle  at  this  great  dis- 
tance than  do  those  absolutely  acting  and  suffering  in  the 
scene.  Nor  can  I  resist  the  desire  to  prophesy  any  more  than 
you  do,  knowing  that  I  may  prove  utterly  mistaken.  I  say, 
then,  our  great  danger  comes  from  foreign  interference.  What 
will  prevent  that  ? — Our  utterly  defeating  the  Confederates  in 
some  great  and  conclusive  battle,  or  our  possession  of  the  cotton 
ports  and  opening  them  to  European  trade,  or  a  most  unequi- 
vocal policy  of  slave  emancipation.  Any  one  of  these  three 
conditions  would  stave  off  recognition  by  foreign  Powers  until 
we  had  ourselves  abandoned  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  South 
to  obedience. 

The  last  measure  is  to  my  mind  the  most  important.  The 
South  has,  by  going  to  war  with  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, thrust  into  our  hands  against  our  will  the  invincible 
weapon  which  constitutional  reasons  had  hitherto  forbidden 
us  to  employ.  At  the  same  time,  it  has  given  us  the  power 
to  remedy  a  great  wrong  to  four  millions  of  the  human  race, 
in  which  we  had  hitherto  been  obliged  to  acquiesce.  We 
are  threatened  with  national  annihilation,  and  defied  to  use 
the  only  means  of  national  preservation.  The  question  is 
distinctly  proposed  to  us,  Shall  slavery  die  or  the  Great 
Republic?  It  is  most  astounding  to  me  that  there  can  be 


1862.]  SLAVERY  MUST  BE  ABOLISHED.  65 

two  opinions  in  the  Free  States  as  to  the  answer.  If  we  do  fall, 
we  deserve  our  fate.  At  the  beginning  of  the  contest,  constitu- 
tional scruples  might  be  respectable.  But  now  we  are  fighting 
to  subjugate  the  South,  that  is  slavery.  We  are  fighting  for 
the  Union.  Who  wishes  to  destroy  the  Union  ?  The  slave- 
holders. Nobody  else.  Are  we  to  spend  1200  millions  and 
raise  600,000  soldiers  in  order  to  protect  slavery  ? 

It  really  ..does  seem  to  me  too  simple  for  argument.  I  am 
anxiously  waiting  for  the  coming  Columbus  who  will  set  this 
egg  of  ours  on  end  by  smashing  in  the  slavery  end.  We  shall 
be  rolling  about  in  every  direction  until  that  is  done.  I  do 
not  know  that  it  is  to  be  done  by  proclamation.  Kather 
perhaps  by  facts.  Well,  I  console  myself  by  thinking  that 
the  people,  the  American  people  at  least,  is  about  as  wise 
collectively  as  less  numerous  collections  of  individuals,  and 
that  the  people  has  really  decreed  emancipation  and  is  only 
puzzling  how  to  carry  it  into  effect.  After  all  it  seems  to  be 
a  law  of  Providence  that  progress  should  be  by  a  spiral  move- 
ment, so  that  when  we  seem  most  tortuous  we  may  perhaps 
be  going  ahead.  I  am  firm  in  the  faith  that  slavery  is  now 
wriggling  itself  to  death.  With  slavery  in  its  primitive 
vigour  I  should  think  the  restored  Union  neither  possible 
nor  desirable.  Do  not  understand  me  as  not  taking  fully 
into  account  all  the  strategical  considerations  against  prema- 
ture governmental  utterances  on  this  great  subject. 

But  are  there  any  trustworthy  friends  of  the  Union  among 
the  slaveholders  ?  Should  we  lose  many  Kentuckians  and 
Virginians  who  are  now  with  us  if  we  boldly  confiscated  the 
slaves  of  all  rebels  ?  and  a  confiscation  of  property  which  has 
legs  and  so  confiscates  itself  at  command,  is  not  only  a  legal, 
but  would  prove  a  very  practical,  measure  in  time  of  war.  In 
brief,  the  time  is  fast  approaching,  I  think,  when  "  Thorough  " 
should  be  written  on  all  our  banners.  Slavery  will  never 
accept  a  subordinate  position.  The  Great  Kepublic  and  slavery 
cannot  both  survive.  We  have  been  defied  to  mortal  combat, 
and  yet  we  hesitate  to  strike.  These  are  my  poor  thoughts 
on  this  great  subject.  Perhaps  you  will  think  them  crude. 

I  was  much  struck  with  what  you  quote  from  Mr.  Conway, 

VOL.  II.  F 


66  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

that  if  emancipation  was  proclaimed  on  the  Upper  Mississippi 
it  would  be  known  to  the  negroes  of  Louisiana  in  advance  of 
the  telegraph.  And  if  once  the  blacks  had  leave  to  run,  how 
many  whites  would  have  to  stay  at  home  to  guard  their 
dissolving  property  ? 

You  have  had  enough  of  my  maunderings.  But  before  I 
conclude  them,  may  I  ask  you  to  give  all  our  kindest  regards 
to  Lowell,  and  to  express  our  admiration  for  the  *  Yankee 
Idyll '?  I  am  afraid  of  using  too  extravagant  language  if  I 
say  all  I  think  about  it.  Was  there  ever  anything  more 
stinging,  more  concentrated,  more  vigorous,  more  just  ?  He 
has  condensed  into  those  few  pages  the  essence  of  a  hundred 
diplomatic  papers  and  historical  disquisitions  and  4th  July 
orations.  I  have  very  pleasant  relations  with  all  the  "J.  B.'s  "  l 
here.  They  are  all  friendly  and  well  disposed  to  the  North. 
I  speak  of  the  Embassy,  which,  with  the  Ambassador  and  dress, 
numbers  eight  or  ten  souls,  some  of  them  very  intellectual 
ones. 

Shall  I  say  anything  of  Austria?  What  can  I  say  that 
would  interest  you  ?  That  is  the  reason  why  I  hate  to  write. 
All  my  thoughts  are  in  America.  Do  you  care  to  know  about 
the  Archduke  Ferdinand  Maximilian  (if  L.  N.2  has  his  way). 
He  is  next  brother  to  the  Emperor ;  but  although  I  have  had 
the  honour  of  private  audience  of  many  archdukes  here,  this 
one  is  a  resident  of  Trieste.  He  is  about  thirty,  has  an  adven- 
turous disposition,  some  imagination,  a  turn  for  poetry — has 
voyaged  a  good  deal  about  the  world  in  the  Austrian  ship  of 
war,  for  in  one  respect  he  much  resembles  that  unfortunate 
but  anonymous  ancestor  of  his,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  with  the 
seven  castles,  who,  according  to  Corporal  Trim,  had  such  a 
passion  for  navigation  and  sea  affairs,  "  with  never  a  seaport 
in  all  his  dominions."  But  now  the  present  King  of  Bohemia 
has  got  the  sway  of  Trieste,  and  Ferdinand  Maximilian  has 
been  resident  there,  and  is  Lord  High  Admiral  and  chief  of  the 
Marine  Department.  He  has  been  much  in  Spain  and  also  in 
South  America.  I  have  read  some  travels — '  Eeise  Skizzen ' — 
of  his,  printed,  not  published.  They  are  not  without  talent, 

1  Cf.  *  Jonathan  to  Jolin,'  in  the  •  Biglow  Papers.'  2  Louis  Napoleon. 


1862.]  AECHDUKE  FERDINAND  MAXIMILIAN.  67 

and  he  ever  and  anon  relieves  his  prose  jog-trot  by  breaking 
into  a  canter  of  poetry.  He  adores  bull-fights,  rather  regrets 
the  Inquisition,  and  considers  the  Duke  of  Alva  everything 
noble  and  chivalrous  and  the  most  abused  of  men.  It  would 
do  your  heart  good  to  hear  his  invocations  to  that  deeply 
injured  shade,  his  denunciations  of  the  ignorant  and  vulgar, 
Protestants  who  have  defamed  him.  "  Du  armer  Alva  !  weil 
du  dem  Willen  deines  Herren  unerschiitterlich  treu  warst, 
weil  die  fest  bestimmten  Grundsatze  der  Eegierung,"  etc., 
etc.,  etc.  You  can  imagine  the  rest.  (N.B. — Let  me  observe 
that  the  D.  K.  was  not  published  until  long  after  the  *  Keise 
Skizzen '  were  written.) 

Dear  me,  I  wish  I  could  get  back  to  the  16th  and  17th 
centuries !  If  once  we  had  the  "  rebels  licked,  Jeff.  Davis 
hanged,  and  all,"  I  might  shunt  myself  back  to  my  old  rails. 
But  alas !  the  events  of  the  19th  century  are  too  engrossing. 
If  Lowell  cares  to  read  this  letter,  will  you  allow  me  to  make 
it  over  to  him  jointly,  as  Captain  Cuttle  says  ?  I  wished  to 
write  to  him,  but  I  am  afraid  only  you  would  tolerate  my 
writing  so  much  when  I  have  nothing  to  say.  If  he  would 
ever  send  me  a  line  I  should  be  infinitely  obliged,  and  would 
quickly  respond.  We  read  the  '  Washers  of  the  Shroud '  with 
fervent  admiration.  Always  remember  me  most  sincerely  to 
the  Club,  one  and  all.  It  touches  me  nearly  when  you  assure 
me  that  I  am  not  forgotten  by  them.  To-morrow  is  Saturday, 
and  last  of  the  month.1  We  are  going  to  dine  with  our  Spanish 
colleague.2  But  the  first  bumper  of  the  Don's  champagne  I 
shall  drain  to  the  health  of  the  Parker  House  friends.  Mary 
and  Lily  join  me  in  kindest  regards  to  you  and  all  yours ; 
and  I  am  as  always, 

Sincerely  your  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 

1  The  Club  dinner  took  place  on  that  day. 

2  M.  de  la  Torre  Ayllon. 


F  2 


68  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  III. 

From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston, 
March  8th,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  have  been  debating  with  myself 
whether  to  wait  for  further  news  from  Nashville,  the  Burnside 
expedition,  Savannah,  or  somewhere,  before  writing  you,  and 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  I  will  begin  this  February  24th, 
and  keep  my  letter  along  a  few  days,  adding  whatever  may 
turn  up,  with  a  reflection  thereupon.  Your  last  letter,  as  I 
told  you,  was  of  great  interest  in  itself,  and  for  the  extracts  it 
contained  from  the  letters  of  your  correspondents.  I  lent  it 
to  your  father  and  your  brother  Edward,  and  a  few  days  ago 
to  William  Amory,  at  his  particular  request.  Calling  on  old 
Mr.  Quincy  two  days  ago,  we  talked  of  you.  He  desired  me 
most  expressly  and  repeatedly  to  send  his  regards  and 
respects.  I  think  I  am  pretty  near  the  words,  but  they  were 
very  cordial  and  distinguishing  ones,  certainly.  He  takes 
the  greatest  interest  in  your  prosperity  and  fame,  and  you 
know  that  the  greatest  of  men  have  not  many  nonagenarian 
admirers.  It  is  nine  weeks,  I  think,  since  Mr.  Quincy  fell 
and  fractured  the  neck  of  the  thigh-bone,  and  he  has  been  on 
his  back  ever  since.  But  he  is  cheerful,  ready  to  live  or  die  ; 
considers  his  later  years  as  an  appendix  to  the  opus  of  his  life, 
that  he  has  had  more  than  he  bargained  for  when  he  accepted 
life. 

As  you  might  suppose  it  would  be  at  ninety,  though  he 
greatly  rejoices  at  our  extraordinary  successes  of  late,  he  does 
not  think  we  are  "  out  of  the  woods,"  as  he  has  it,  yet.  A 
defeat,  he  thinks,  would  take  down  our  spirits  as  rapidly  as 
they  were  raised.  "  But  I  am  an  old  man,"  he  says,  "  and 
to  be  sure  an  old  man  cannot  help  seeing  the  uncertainties 
and  difficulties  which  the  excitable  public  overlook  in  its 
exaltation." 

Never  was  such  ecstasy,  such  delirium  of  excitement  as  last 
Monday,  a  week  ago  to-day,  when  we  got  the  news  from  Fort 
Donelson.  Why,  to  give  you  an  instance  from  my  own 
experience — when  I,  a  grave  college  professor,  went  into  my 


1862.]  THE   COURT  IN  VIENNA.  69 

lecture-room,  the  class,  which  had  first  got  the  news  a  little 
before,  began  clapping  and  clapping  louder  and  louder,  then 
cheering,  until  I  had  to  give  in  myself,  and  flourishing  my 
wand  in  the  air,  joined  with  the  boys  in  their  rousing  hurrahs, 
after  which  I  went  on  with  my  lecture  as  usual.  The  almost 
universal  feeling  is  that  the  rebellion  is  knocked  on  the  head  ; 
that  it  may  kick  hard,  even  rise  and  stagger  a  few  paces,  but 
that  its  os  frontis  is  beaten  in. 

The  last  new  thing  is  the  President's  Message,  looking  to 
gradual  compensated  emancipation.  I  don't  know  how  it  will 
be  received  here,  but  the  effect  will  be  good  abroad.  John 
Stuart  Mill's  article  in  Fraser  has  delighted  people  here 
more  than  anything  for  a  good  while.  I  suppose  his  readers 
to  be  the  best  class  of  Englishmen. 

Yours  always, 

0.  W.  H. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
March  16th,  1862. 

DAKLING  LITTLE  WOGGINS, — Lily  has  told  you  something, 
I  daresay,  about  this  society.  The  young  ladies  are  a  power 
here.  They  are  called  "Comtessen,"  for  of  course  no  one  is 
supposed  to  have  a  lower  rank.  They  have  been  very  civil  to 
Lily,  and  this  is  thought  a  great  wonder,  for  it  is  not  the  rule 
but  the  exception.  But  there  is  not  much  advance  beyond 
the  circumference  of  society.  There  is  no  Court  this  winter. 

When  the  Empress's  health  permits  her  to  be  in  Vienna, 
there  is  one  Court  ball  in  the  year,  to  which  diplomates  are 
asked,  and  two  a  week  to  which  they  are  not  asked.  The 
society,  by  which,  of  course,  I  mean  the  creme  de  la  creme,  is 
very  small  in  number  and  much  intermarried.  The  parties 
are  almost  like  family  parties ;  but  you  must  confine  yourself 
to  this  society,  for  they  never  mix  with  what  is  called  the 
second  society.  So  far  as  manner  goes,  nothing  can  be  more 
natural  or  high  bred  than  that  of  the  Viennese  aristocracy. 
And  there  is  no  such  thing  as  literary  or  artistic  circles.  In 


70  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

short,  you  must  be  intimate  with  the  Pharaohs  or  stay  at  home. 
Now  I  have  painted  the  picture,  I  think,  truthfully.  Lily 
came  out  in  England,  and  has  never  been  out  in  America.  She 
longs  to  be  there,  and  will  go,  if  we  can  manage  it,  before  next 
winter.  If  you  should  decide  to  come,  however,  she  would 
stay,  for  you  would  get  on  much  better  with  her  assistance,  as 
she  already  knows  familiarly  all  the  Comtessen.  As  for  our- 
selves, we  do  not  care  much  for  society.  The  pleasantest 
things  we  have  here  are  our  occasional  dinners.  Most  of  our 
colleagues  have  invited  us.  I  have  not  been  able  to  pay  my 
debts  this  year,  as  my  apartments  are  not  fit  to  give  diplo- 
matic dinners  in.  Next  winter  I  hope  to  clear  off  the  score. 

I  think  we  have  dined  three  times  at  Viennese  houses — once 
at  Prince  Esterhazy's,  once  at  Prince  Liechtenstein's,  and  once 
at  Baron  Kothschild's.     I  must  except  our  bankers,  who  ask 
us  very  often,  and  give  very  pleasant  dinners.     Everybody 
goes  to  the  Burg  Theatre  every  evening.     The  opera  is  not 
very  good,  but  the  house  is  better.     Moreover,  the  Viennese 
are  under  the  impression  that  they  are  going  to  have  a  new 
opera-house.     The  foundation  is  dug.     Yesterday  we  invited 
our  American  monde  to  dine,  to  celebrate  our  victories,  of 
which  you  may  suppose  our  heads  and  hearts  are  full.     The 
Americans  are  very  few  in  number  here.     Besides  Mr.  Lippitt, 
Secretary  of  Legation,  and  Mr,  Delaplaine,  there  were  three 
young  medical  students,  Kopes  of  Boston,  Walcot  of  Salem, 
and  Caswell  of  Providence,  and  the  consul,  Mr.  Canisius,  and 
Mr.  Thayer,  who  has  lived  here  a  good  while,  a  studious  hermit 
kind  of  life,  engaged  in  writing  the  life  of  Beethoven.     We 
like  him  very  much.     We  are  intensely  anxious  for  American 
news,  and  the   steamers  in  this   stormy   season   make  long 
passages. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


1862.]  XO   COMPROMISE.  71 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
March  IGtli,  1862. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER. — Before  this  reaches  you  it  is  pro- 
bable that  the  great  tragedy  will  have  approached  its  fifth 
act,  for  the  grapple  with  the  Confederates  on  the  Potomac 
can  scarcely  be  deferred  much  longer.  I  feel  awfully  anxious 
when  I  think  that  this  great  struggle  is  perhaps  even  now 
taking  place,  although  I  have  full  confidence  as  to  the  issue. 
This  secession  was  always  a  rotten,  rickety  concern,  based 
entirely  or  mainly  on  the  confident  hope  of  assistance  from 
England  and  France.  The  blunder  of  Captain  Wilkes  came 
very  near  giving  them  this  advantage  ;  but  since  this  alarm- 
ing matter  was  satisfactorily  adjusted  there  has  been  no  hope 
for  the  rebellion  in  Europe.  France  and  England  have  made 
their  minds  up  to  await  the  issue  of  the  present  campaign. 

But  I  am  much  more  anxious  as  to  the  possible  policy  of 
the  Government.  I  live  in  daily  dread  of  hearing  that 
hideous  word  "  compromise  "  trumpeted  to  the  world.  Slavery 
is  bad  enough  as  an  enemy,  but  the  Lord  deliver  us  from 
it  as  a  friend !  If  we  do  not  smash  the  accursed  institution 
now  that  we  have  the  means,  we  shall  have  the  rebellion 
back  again  before  we  have  been  six  months  at  peace,  and 
we  shall  deserve  our  fate.  However,  I  comfort  myself  with 
the  reflection  that  revolutions  of  this  kind  do  not  go  back- 
wards very  often.  The  majority  which  elected  Lincoln  in 
1860  is  larger  now  than  it  was  then,  and  I  believe  the 
600,000  volunteers  who  have  turned  out  from  their  peaceful 
homes  to  fight  slavery  and  nothing  else,  will  all  come  home 
determined  abolitionists.  Slavery  has  trampled  upon  the  con- 
stitution, aimed  its  murderous  blows  against  the  very  heart  of 
our  nation,  turned  a  prosperous  and  happy  land  into  a  hell, 
plunged  us  over  head  and  ears  in  debt,  and  for  all  these  favours 
I  do  not  think  that  we  shall  be  for  giving  it  anything  but  the 
coup  de  grace  under  its  fifth  rib.  It  is  rather  late  in  the  day 
for  it  to  talk  about  constitutional  guarantees.  Last  March  was 
the  time  for  that.  Compromise  was  killed  at  Sumter. 


72  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

The  carnival  being  ended  there  is  an  end  to  balls.  There 
are  now  evening  receptions,  several  in  the  week,  and  Lily 
rather  enjoys  them.  She  would  like  to  make  a  visit  to  America, 
too,  and  will  do  so  if  it  can  be  managed,  although  it  is  hard 
to  isolate  ourselves  from  our  children  for  so  long.  Vienna  is 
like  another  planet.  One  of  Lily's  partners  asked  her  if 
Boston  was  near  the  river  Amazon  ?  This  was  rather  a 
geographical  achievement  for  Vienna,  as  alter  all  the  Amazon 
is  in  America. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston, 
April  yiih,  1862. 

MY  DEAK  MOTLEY, — I  saw  Lowell  day  before  yesterday,  and 
asked  him  if  he  had  written  as  you  requested  and  as  I  begged 
him  to  do.  He  told  me  he  had,  and  I  congratulated  you  on 
having  a  new  correspondent  to  bring  you  into  intelligent 
relations  with  American  matters,  as  seen  through  a  keen  pair 
of  Boston  eyes,  and  a  new  channel  through  which  your  intense 
sympathies  can  be  reached.  I  trust  that  between  us  you  can 
be  kept  pretty  well  supplied  with  that  particular  kind  of 
knowledge  which  all  exiles  want,  and  which  the  newspapers 
do  not  give  ;  knowledge  of  things,  persons,  affairs  public  and 
private,  localised,  individualised,  idiosyncratised,  from  those 
whose  ways  of  looking  at  matters  you  know  well,  and  from  all 
whose  statements  and  guesses  you  know  just  what  to  discount 
to  make  their  "personal  equation"  square  with  your  own. 
The  general  conviction  now,  as  shown  in  the  talk  one  hears,  in 
the  tone  of  the  papers,  in  the  sales  of  Government  stocks,  is 
that  of  fast-growing  confidence  in  the  speedy  discomfiture  of 
the  rebels  at  all  points.  This  very  morning  we  have  two 
rebel  stories  that  New  Orleans  has  surrendered,  its  forts  having 
been  taken  after  some  thirty  hours'  attack.  At  the  same  time 
comes  the  story  that  the  rebels  are  falling  back  from  Corinth. 

Both  seem  altogether  probable,  but  whether  true  or  not  the 


1862.]  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THE  NOKTH.  73 

feeling  is  very  general  now  that  we  are  going  straight  to  our 
aims,  not,  perhaps,  without  serious  checks  from  time  to  time, 
but  irresistibly  and  rapidly.  The  great  interior  communica- 
tions of  the  rebels  are  being  broken  up.  General  Mitchell 
has  broken  the  vertebral  column  of  the  Memphis  and  Charles- 
town  railroad,  and  while  McClellan  with  130,000  men  or  more 
is  creeping  up  to  Yorktown  with  his  mounds  and  batteries,  we 
see  McDowell,  and  Banks,  and  Burnside  drawing  in  gradually 
and  sweeping  the  rebels  in  one  vast  lattue  before  them.  On 
the  Mississippi,  again,  and  its  tributaries,  our  successes  have 
made  us  confident.  We  do  not  now  ask  whether,  but  when. 
That  truly  magnificent  capture  of  "  No.  10  "  has  given  us  all 
a  feeling  that  we  are  moving  to  our  ends  as  fate  moves,  and 
that  nothing  will  stop  us.  I  think  the  cutting  of  that  canal 
through  the  swamps  and  forests  ranks  with  the  miracles  of 
this  war,  with  the  Monitor  achievement,  and  with  the  Burnside 
exploit,  which  last  was  so  heroically  carried  out  in  the  face  of 
storms  such  as  broke  up  the  Spanish  Armada.  As  for  the 
canal — no  doubt  we  see  things  in  exaggerated  proportions  on 
this  side — but  to  me  the  feat  is  like  that  of  Cyrus,  when  he 
drew  off  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates  and  marched  his  army 
through  the  bed  of  the  river.  So  of  the  Monitor — "  Minotaur" 
old  Mr.  Quincy  said  to  me,  "  it  should  have  been  " — its  appear- 
ance in  front  of  the  great  megalosaurus  or  deinotherium,  which 
came  out  in  its  scaly  armour  that  no  one  could  pierce,  breathing 
fire  and  smoke  from  its  nostrils ;  is  it  not  the  age  of  fables  and 
of  heroes  and  demigods  over  again  ? 

And  all  this  makes  me  think  of  our  "  boys,"  as  we  used 
to  call  our  men,  who  are  doing  the  real  work  of  the  time 
— your  nephews,  my  son,  and  our  many  friends.  We  have 
not  heard  so  much  of  the  cavalry,  to  which  I  believe  Law- 
rence is  attached.  But  Burnside  !  how  you  must  have  followed 
him  in  the  midst  of  storm,  of  shipwreck,  of  trial  by  thirst,  if 
not  by  famine,  of  stormy  landings  on  naked  beaches,  through 
Koanoke,  through  Newberne,  until  at  last  we  find  him  knock- 
ing at  the  back  door  that  leads  to  Norfolk,  and  read  this 
very  day  that  the  city  is  trembling  all  over  in  fear  of  an 
attack  from  him,  while  Fort  Macon  is  making  ready  at  the 


74  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

other  end  of  his  field  of  labour  to  follow  Pulaski.  I  have 
heard  of  Lewis  Stackpole ;  at  one  time  they  said  his  knee 
troubled  him,  that  he  was  not  able  to  march  as  he  would 
like ;  but  you  must  know  more  about  this  than  I  do.  Of 
course,  my  eyes  are  on  the  field  before  Yorktown.  The  last 
note  from  my  boy  was  on  a  three-cornered  scrap  of  paper,  and 
began,  "  In  the  woods,  near  the  enemy."  It  was  cheery  and 
manly. 

Wendell  came  home  in  good  health,  but  for  his  wound, 
which  was  well  in  a  few  weeks,  but  the  life  he  led  here  was  a 
very  hard  one — late  hours,  excitement  all  the  time — and  I 
really  thought  that  he  would  be  better  in  camp  than  fretting 
at  his  absence  from  it,  and  living  in  a  round  of  incessant  over- 
stimulating  society.  I  think  he  finds  camp  life  agree  with 
him  particularly  well.  Did  you  happen  to  know  anything 
of  Captain  Bartlett,  of  the  20th  ?  I  suppose  not.  He  was 
made  a  captain  when  a  junior  in  our  college ;  a  remarkable 
military  taste,  talent,  and  air.  He  lost  his  leg  the  other  day, 
when  setting  pickets  before  Yorktown.  His  chief  regret  was 
not  being  able  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  army  any  longer. 
I  meant  to  have  told  you  that  my  boy  was  made  a  captain  the 
other  day.  He  does  not  care  to  take  the  place,  being  first 
lieutenant  under  his  most  intimate  friend  Hallowell.  The  two 
want  to  go  into  battle  together,  like  Nisus  and  Euryalus.  How 
our  little  unit  out  of  the  six  or  seven  hundred  thousand  grows 
in  dimensions  as  we  talk  or  write  about  it ! 

I  wish  I  could  give  you  an  idea  of  the  momentary  phase  of 
the  public  mind  as  I  see  its  manifestations  here,  which  are 
probably  not  unlike  those  elsewhere.  I  will  tell  you  one  thing 
which  strikes  me.  People  talk  less  about  what  is  going  on 
and  more  quietly.  There  is,  as  I  said,  a  feeling  that  the 
curtain  is  like  to  drop  pretty  soon  on  the  first  act  of  the 
drama,  that  the  military  part  of  the  play  will  be  mainly  over 
in  a  few  months.  Not  extermination,  nor  pacification,  per- 
haps, but  extinction  of  the  hopes  of  the  rebels  as  to  anything 
they  can  do  with  great  armies  in  the  field,  and  the  consequent 
essential  break  up  of  the  rebellion.  But  apres  ?  That,  of 
course,  is  exercising  those  who  have  done  croaking  about  the 


1862.]  REFLECTIONS   ON  THE  WAR.  75 

war.     I  dined  at last  week,  with  the  Friday  Club,  and 

sat  next .     He  was  as  lugubrious  on  what  was  to  come 

after  the  war  as  he  was  a  year  ago  with  respect  to  its  im- 
mediate danger.  Then  he  could  hardly  bear  to  think  that  so 
accomplished  an  officer  as  General  Lee  was  to  be  opposed  to 
our  Northern  leaders.  Yet  who  troubles  himself  very  parti- 
cularly about  General  Lee  nowadays  ?  He  thinks  there  are 
to  be  such  hatreds  between  North  and  South  as  have  not  been 
since  the  times  of  the  Greek  Kepublic.  I  suppose  seventy 
years  must  be  at  the  bottom  of  all  this  despondency — not  that 
everybody  does  not  see  terrible  difficulties.  But  let  us  fight 
this  quarrel  fairly  out,  not  patch  it  up,  and  it  will  go  hard  but 
we  will  find  some  way  of  living  together  in  a  continent  that  has 
so  much  room  as  this.  Of  the  precise  mode  no  man  knoweth.  .  .  . 

Yours  always, 

0.  W.  H. 


To  Ms  Mother. 

Vienna, 
June  9th,  1862. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — I  am  pretty  busy  now  with  my 
History,  and  work  on  regularly  enough,  but  of  course  I  am  dis- 
turbed by  perpetual  thoughts  about  our  own  country.  I  am 
convinced,  however,  that  it  is  a  mistake  in  us  all  to  have  been 
expecting  a  premature  result.  It  is  not  a  war ;  it  is  not  exactly 
a  revolution  ;  it  is  the  sanguinary  development  of  great  political 
and  social  problems,  which  it  was  the  will  of  the  Great  Kuler  of 
the  Universe  should  be  reserved  as  the  work  of  the  generation 
now  on  the  stage  and  their  immediate  successors.  The  more 
I  reflect  upon  this  civil  war,  and  try  to  regard  it  as  a  series 
of  historical  phenomena,  disengaging  myself  for  the  moment 
from  all  personal  feelings  or  interests,  the  more  I  am  con- 
vinced that  the  conflict  is  the  result  of  antagonisms,  the 
violent  collision  of  which  could  no  longer  be  deferred,  and 
that  its  duration  must  necessarily  be  longer  than  most  of 
us  anticipated.  In  truth,  it  is  almost  always  idle  to  measure 
a  sequence  of  great  historical  events  by  the  mere  lapse  of 


76  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

time  which  does  very  well  to  mark  the  ordinary  succession 
of  commonplace  human  affairs.  The  worst  of  it  is,  so  far  as  we 
are  all  individually  concerned,  that  men  are  short  lived,  while 
man  is  immortal  even  on  the  earth,  for  aught  that  we  know 
to  the  contrary.  It  will  take  half  a  century,  perhaps,  before 
the  necessary  conclusion  to  the  great  strife  in  which  we  are  all 
individually  concerned  has  been  reached,  and  there  are  few  of 
us  now  living  destined  to  see  the  vast  result.  But  it  is  of  little 
consequence,  I  suppose,  to  the  Supreme  Disposer  whether 
Brown,  Jones,  and  Kobinson  understand  now  or  are  likely  to 
live  long  enough  to  learn  what  he  means  by  the  general 
scheme  according  to  which  he  governs  the  universe  in  which 
we  play  for  a  time  our  little  parts.  If  we  do  our  best  to  find 
out,  try  to  conform  ourselves  to  the  inevitable,  and  walk  as 
straight  as  we  can  by  such  light  as  we  honestly  can  get  for 
ourselves,  even  though  it  be  but  a  tallow  candle,  we  shall 
escape  tumbling  over  our  noses  more  than  half-a-dozen  times 
daily. 

I  look  at  the  mass  of  the  United  States,  and  it  seems  im- 
possible for  me  to  imagine  for  physical  and  geographical  and 
ethnographical  reasons  that  its  territory  can  be  permanently  cut 
up  into  two  or  more  independent  governments.  A  thousand 
years  ago  this  happened  to  Europe,  and  the  result  was  the 
parcelling  out  of  two  or  three  hundred  millions  of  human 
creatures  into  fifty  or  five  hundred  (it  matters  not  how  many) 
different  nations,  who  thus  came  to  have  different  languages 
religions,  manners,  customs,  and  histories.  As  I  am  not 
writing  a  historical  lecture,  and  as  I  am  a  wonderful  son  who 
can  always  astonish  his  mother  with  his  wisdom,  it  will  be 
sufficient  for  my  present  audience  to  say  that  not  one  of  the 
causes  which  ten  centuries  ago  disintegrated  and  decomposed 
the  European  world  with  a  territory  about  the  size  of  the 
United  States,  and  with  essentially  the  same  population,  is 
present  at  this  moment  in  America.  The  tendency  of  the  age 
everywhere,  and  the  strongest  instinct  of  the  American  people, 
is  to  consolidation,  unification.  It  is  the  tendency  of  all  the 
great  scientific  discoveries  and  improvements  which  make  the 
age  of  utilitarianism  at  which  we  have  arrived.  I  do  not 


1362.]  THE  UNION  MUST  SURVIVE.  77 

believe  the  American  people  (of  course  I  mean  a  large 
majority)  will  ever  make  such  asses  of  themselves  as  to  go  to 
work  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  establish 
a  Chinese  wall  of  custom-houses  and  forts  across  the  widest 
part  of  the  American  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  and  keep  an  army  of  300,000  men  perpetually  on  foot, 
with  a  navy  of  corresponding  proportion,  in  order  to  watch  the 
nation  on  the  south  side  of  the  said  Chinese  wall,  and  fight  it 
every  half-dozen  years  or  so,  together  with  its  European  allies. 
The  present  war,  sanguinary  and  expensive  as  it  is,  even  if  it 
lasts  ten  years  longer,  is  cheaper  both  in  blood  and  in  money 
than  the  adoption  of  such  a  system ;  and  I  am  so  much  of  a 
democrat  (far  more  now  than  I  ever  was  in  my  life)  as  to  feel 
confident  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  will  instinctively 
perceive  that  truth,  and  act  in  accordance  with  it.  There- 
fore I  have  no  fear  that  it  will  ever  acknowledge  a  rival 
sovereignty  to  its  own.  The  Union  I  do  not  believe  can  be 
severed.  Therefore  I  believe  the  war  must  go  on  until  this 
great  popular  force  has  beaten  down  and  utterly  annihilated 
the  other  force  which  has  arranged  itself  in  plump  opposition 
to  it,  The  world  moves  by  forces. 

The  popular  force — where  land  is  half  a  dollar  an  acre  and 
limitless  in  supply — for  a  century  to  come  must  prove  irresis- 
tible. How  long  the  conflict  will  last  I  know  not,  but  slavery 
must  go  down  and  free  labour  prevail  at  last ;  but  those  of  us 
whose  blood  is  flowing  or  whose  hearts  are  aching  (like 

Mrs.  W.  D 's,  for  instance,  mother  of  heroes)  may  find  it 

small  consolation  that  the  United  States  of  1900  will  be  a 
greater  and  happier  power  than  ever  existed  in  the  world, 
thanks  to  the  sacrifices  of  this  generation.  But  we  have  only 
to  accept  the  action  of  great  moral  and  political  forces  even  as 
we  must  instinctively  those  of  physical  nature.  There,  you 
see  what  I  am  reduced  to  in  the  utter  lack  of  topics.  Instead 
of  writing  a  letter  I  preach  a  sermon.  We  are  going  on  very 
quietly.  There  is  nothing  doing  now.  Vienna  has  decanted 
itself  into  the  country,  and  we  are  left  like  "  lees  for  the  vault 
to  brag  of."  The  summer,  after  much  preliminary  sulking 
and  blustering,  seems  willing  to  begin,  and  our  garden  is  a 


78  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

great  resource.  There  is  small  prospect  of  a  war  in  Europe. 
The  poor  Poles  will  be  put  down  at  last.  What  is  called  moral 
influence  will  be  bestowed  upon  them  by  England  and  France 
as  generously  as  the  same  commodity  has  been  bestowed  upon 
our  slaveholders,  and  it  will  do  about  as  much  good.  Fine 
words  have  small  effect  on  Cossacks  or  parsnips. 

Give  our  love  to  the  governor  and  to  all  the  family  far  and 
near,  and  with  a  boundless  quantity  for  yourself, 
I  am,  my  dearest  mother, 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Marien  Villa,  Voslau  bei  Wien, 
June  22nd,  1862. 

DAKLING  KLEINE  MAKY, — Your  letter  of  June  1st  from 
Washington  was  most  delightful.  Every  word  of  it  was  full 
of  interest,  and  every  sentiment  expressed  in  it  is  very  just 
and  quite  according  to  my  heart.  .  .  .  The  copy  of  your  little 
note  from  the  President  touched  me  very  much.  I  have  the 
most  profound  respect  for  him,  which  increases  every  clay. 
His  wisdom,  courage,  devotion  to  duty,  and  simplicity  of 
character  seem  to  me  to  embody  in  a  very  striking  way  all 
that  is  most  noble  in  the  American  character  and  American 
destiny.  His  administration  is  an  epoch  in  the  world's 
history,  and  I  have  no  more  doubt  than  I  have  of  my  exist- 
ence that  the  regeneration  of  our  Eepublic  for  a  long  period 
to  come  will  date  from  his  proclamation  calling  out  the  first 
75,000  troops  more  than  a  year  ago. 

That  proclamation  was  read  "  amid  bursts  of  laughter  by  the 
rebel  congress  "  ;  but  people  do  not  laugh  at  Abraham  Lincoln 
now  in  any  part  of  the  world,  whatever  else  they  may  do  or 
say. 

Your  affectionate 
P. 


18G2.]  THE   SOVEKEIGNTY   OF   THE   PEOPLE.  79 


To  his  Mother. 

Legation  of  the  United  States,  Vienna, 
June  30ta,  1862. 

MY  DEAKEST  MOTHEE, — It  is  a  long  time  since  I  wrote  to 
you,  and  I  am  only  writing  a  little  note  at  this  moment,  for  I 
would  not  let  this  steamer  go  without  a  word  of  affection  and 
greeting.  But  the  life  here  is  so  humdrum,  while  yours  on 
that  side  of  the  ocean  is  so  crowded  with  great  events,  that  it 
is  always  with  reluctance  that  I  sit  down  to  write  to  any  one. 
Our  life  here  (Voslau)  is  very  retired,  and  therefore  very 
agreeable,  for  we  can  devote  ourselves  to  our  own  pursuits, 
the  principal  part  of  which,  as  you  may  suppose,  is  reading  the 
American  journals.  I  try  to  work  at  my  History,  and  have 
really  succeeded  in  getting  my  teeth  into  the  subject;  but 
the  great  events  of  our  own  day  in  our  country  are  so  much 
more  absorbing,  that  I  find  it  difficult  to  make  much  progress. 
As  for  European  politics,  except  in  their  bearing  on  our  own 
affairs,  they  are  pale  and  uninteresting  to  me,  although  so 
important  for  the  Europeans  themselves  as  to  prevent  their 
giving  sufficient  attention  to  the  American  war.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  public  ignorance  on  that  subject  is  amazing. 

I  do  not  mean'  that  we  had  any  right  to  expect  that  they 
would  sympathise  with  the  great  movement  now  going  on  in 
America.  The  spectacle  of  a  great  people  going  forth  in  its 
majesty  and  its  irresistible  power  to  smite  to  the  dust  the 
rebellion  of  a  privileged  oligarchy,  is  one  so  entirely  contrary 
to  all  European  notions  that  it  is  hopeless  to  attempt  making 
it  understood.  All  European  ideas  are  turned  upside  down 
by  the  mere  statement  of  the  proposition  which  is  at  the 
bottom  of  our  war.  Hitherto  the  "  sovereignty  of  the  people  " 
has  been  heard  of  in  Europe,  and  smiled  at  as  a  fiction,  very 
much  as  we  smile  on  our  side  of  the  water  at  that  other  little 
fiction,  the  divine  right  of  kings.  But  now  here  comes  re- 
bellion against  our  idea  of  sovereignty,  and  fact  on  a  large 
scale  is  illustrating  our  theoretic  fiction.  Privilege  rebels, 
and  the  sovereign  people  orders  an  army  of  half  a  million  to 
smash  the  revolt. 


80  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

Here  is  the  puzzle  for  the  European  mind.  Whoever  heard 
before  in  human  history  of  a  rebellion,  except  one  made  by 
the  people  against  privilege?  That  the  people  rising  from 
time  to  time,  after  years  of  intolerable  oppression,  against 
their  natural  masters,  kings,  nobles,  priests,  and  the  like, 
should  be  knocked  back  into  their  appropriate  servitude  by 
the  strong  hand  of  authority  at  any  expense  of  treasure  and 
blood,  why  this  is  all  correct.  But  when  the  privileged  order 
of  the  New  World— the  300,000  slaveholders  leading  on  their 
3,000,000  dupes — rise  in  revolt  against  the  natural  and  legal 
and  constitutional  authority  of  the  sovereign  people,  and  when 
that  authority,  after  pushing  conciliation  and  concession  in 
the  face  of  armed  treason  to  the  verge  of  cowardice,  at  last 
draws  the  sword  and  defends  the  national  existence  against 
the  rebels,  why  then  it  is  bloodshed,  causeless  civil  war,  and 
so  on. 

....  One  great  fact  has  been  demonstrated — the  Ameri- 
cans, by  a  large  majority,  will  spend  any  amount  of  treasure 
and  blood  rather  than  allow  their  republic  to  be  divided. 
Two  years  ago  we  did  not  know  this  fact.  Two  years  hence, 
perhaps,  we  shall  learn  another  fact — that  the  single  possi- 
bility of  division,  that  the  single  obstacle  to  peace  and  union, 
is  slavery,  and  that  so  long  as  slavery  exists,  peace  is  impos- 
sible. Whenever  the  wise  and  courageous  American  people 
is  thoroughly  possessed  of  this  truth,  our  trouble  will  be  over. 
I  think  Mr.  Lincoln  embodies  singularly  well  the  healthy 
American  mind.  He  revolts  at  extreme  measures,  and  moves 
in  a  steady  way  to  the  necessary  end.  He  reads  the  signs  of 
the  times,  and  will  never  go  faster  than  the  people  at  his 
back.  So  his  slowness  seems  sometimes  like  hesitation ;  but 
I  have  not  a  doubt  that  when  the  people  wills  it,  he  will 
declare  that  will,  and  with  the  disappearance  of  the  only 
dissolvent  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  will  be  made  impos- 
sible. I  have  got  to  the  end  of  my  paper,  and  so  with  best 
love  to  my  father  and  all  the  rest, 

I  am,  dear  mother,  most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


1862.]  ENGLAND  AND  FKANCE.  81 


To  his  Mother. 

Marien  Villa,  Voslau, 

August  18th,  1862. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — It  seems  to  me  at  times  as  if  I 
could  not  sit  out  this  war  in  exile.  I  console  myself  with 
reflecting  that  I  could  be  of  little  use  were  I  at  home,  and 
that  I  may  occasionally  be  of  some  service  abroad.  The  men 
whom  I  most  envy  are  those  who  are  thirty  years  of  age  and 
who  were  educated  at  West  Point,  or  rather  that  portion  of 
them  who  did  not  imbibe  a  love  for  the  noble  institution  of 
slavery  together  with  their  other  acquirements  at  that  college. 

There  is  no  doubt,  I  believe,  that  Louis  Napoleon  passes 
most  of  his  time  in  urging  the  English  Government  to  unite 
with  him  in  interfering  on  behalf  of  the  slave-dealing,  negro- 
breeding  confederacy,  and  that  the  agents  of  that  concern 
have  offered  to  go  down  and  worship  him  in  any  way  he  likes, 
even  to  the  promising  of  some  kind  of  bogus  abolition  scheme, 
to  take  effect  this  time  next  century,  in  case  he  will  help  them 
cut  the  throat  of  the  United  States  Government.  Thus  far 
the  English  Government  have  resisted  his  importunities.  But 
their  resistance  will  not  last  long.  The  only  thing  that  saves 
us  as  yet  from  a  war  with  the  slaveholders,  allied  with  both 
France  and  England,  is  the  anti-slavery  feeling  of  a  very 
considerable  portion  of  the  British  public.  Infinite  pains  are 
taken  by  the  agents  of  the  slaveholders  to  convince  the  world 
that  the  North  is  as  much  in  favour  of  slavery  as  the  South, 
but  the  anti-slavery  acts  of  the  present  Congress  have  given 
the  lie  to  these  assertions.  Nevertheless,  I  am  entirely  con- 
vinced, not  as  a  matter  of  theory  but  as  fact,  that  nothing  but 
a  proclamation  of  emancipation  to  every  negro  in  the  country 
will  save  us  from  war  with  England  and  France  combined. 

I  began  this  note  determined  not  to  say  a  single  word  on 
the  subject  of  the  war,  as  if  it  were  possible  to  detach  one's 
thoughts  from  it  for  a  moment.  I  continue  to  believe  in 
McClellan's  military  capacity  as  on  the  whole  equal  to  that 
of  any  of  his  opponents.  I  do  not  think  that  this  war  has  de- 
veloped any  very  great  military  genius  as  yet.  But  it  is  not 

VOL.  II.  G 


82  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAI>.  Ill, 

a  military  war,  if  such,  a  contradiction  can  be  used.  It  is  a 
great  political  and  moral  revolution,  and  we  are  in  the  first 
stage  of  it.  The  coming  man,  whoever  he  may  be,  must  have 
military  genius  united  with  intense  faith  in  something.  In 
the  old  civil  wars  of  Holland,  France,  and  England,  the  men 
who  did  the  work  were  the  men  who  either  believed  intensely 
in  the  Pope  and  the  Inquisition,  or  who  intensely  hated  those 
institutions ;  who  either  believed  in  the  Crown  or  in  the  people ; 
who  either  adored  or  detested  civil  and  religious  liberty.  And 
in  our  war,  supposing  other  nations  let  us  fight  it  out,  which 
they  are  not  likely  to  do,  the  coming  man  is  some  tremendous 
negro  seller  with  vast  military  capacity,  or  some  John  Brown 
with  ditto.  I  have  an  abiding  faith  in  the  American  people ; 
in  its  courage,  love  of  duty,  and  determination  to  pursue  the 
right  when  it  has  made  up  its  mind.  So  I  believe  this  con- 
spiracy of  the  slaveholders  will  yet  be  squashed,  but  it  will 
not  be  till  the  people  has  made  a  longer  stride  than  it  has  yet 
made.  Pardon  me  for  this  effusion.  Out  of  the  fulness  of 
the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh.  And  these  are  times  when 
every  man  not  only  has  a  right,  but  is  urged  by  the  most 
sacred  duty  to  speak  his  mind.  We  are  very  tranquil  exter- 
nally, speaking  here  in  Yoslau,  where  we  shall  remain  till  the 
middle  of  October.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  mother.  All 
send  love  to  you  and  the  governor,  and  I  remain, 

Most  affectionately,  your  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ms  Second  Daughter. 

Legation  of  the  United  States,  Vienna, 
August  26th,  18G2. 

MY  DARLING  LITTLE  MARY, — I  am  writing  to  you  a  mere 
apology  for  a  letter.  I  wrote  a  letter  to  your  dear  grand- 
mamma by  the  last  steamer,  and,  I  believe,  to  you,  but  I  am  not 
sure.  I  am  writing  at  my  office  in  town  where  I  have  the 
newspapers  up  to  the  12th  of  August,  which  your  mother  and 
Lily  have  not  yet  seen.  Here  I  have  just  read  in  them  the 
details  of  the  late  fight  in  Virginia,  in  which  the  Massachu- 


1862.]  THE  EICHMOND  BATTLES.  »        83 

setts  2nd  seems  to  have  so  much  distinguished  itself,  and  to 
have  suffered  so  severely.  I  see  with  great  regret  that  my 
old  friend  and  class-mate,  Dr.  Shurtleff,  has  lost  a  son  in  the 
fight.  The  details  are  still  meagre,  but  I  have  seen  enough 
to  feel  sure  that  our  men  behaved  brilliantly,  and  I  can  have 
no  doubt  of  our  ultimate  success.  I  have  just  seen  Hay  ward, 
whom  I  daresay  you  have  seen  in  Hertford  Street.  He  had 
had  a  long  talk  with  Monsieur  Duvergier  d'Hauranne,  one  of 
Louis  Philippe's  old  ministers,  which  gentleman  had  just 
heard  the  whole  story  of  the  Eichmond  battles  from  the 
French  princes.  They  described  them  exactly  according  to 
the  accounts  of  the  Northern  newspapers,  which  they  pro- 
nounced perfectly  accurate,  said  that  nothing  could  exceed 
the  courage  displayed  on  both  sides,  and  that  the  movement 
to  James  Eiver  had  been  managed  in  such  a  very  masterly 
manner  by  McClellan.  All  this  I  had  no  doubt  of,  but  I  like 
to  hear  what  outsiders  say  to  each  other.  Hayward  also  read 
me  a  note  from  Lord  March,  Governor-General  of  Canada, 
who  says  that  English  officers  present  at  the  late  battles,  and 
since  returned  to  Canada,  pronounce  the  accounts  given  in 
the  Northern  papers  as  perfectly  accurate. 

I  have  not  a  word  to  say  of  news.  We  dribble  on  in  the 
even  tenor  of  our  Yoslau  ways.  Hayward  is  coming  out  to 
dine  to-morrow.1  And  Saturday  or  Sunday  we  expect  a  visit 
of  a  few  days  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hughes  (Tom  Brown)  and 
Miss  Stanley  (Arthur  Stanley's  sister).  We  hope  to  have 
some  comfort  in  talking  with  them,  as  Hughes  is  as  staunch  a 
friend  to  our  cause  as  exists  in  Europe.  Of  course  we  never 
talk  or  think  of  anything  else  night  or  day. 

Good-bye  and  God  bless  you,  my  darling.  I  promise  to 
write  again  next  week. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 

1  From  Mr.  Hayward's  Letters,  vol.  ing  that  the  restoration  of  the    Union 

ii.  p.  82.     "  I  also  passed  a  day  with'  in  its  entirety  icas  as  sure  as  the  sun  in 

the  Motleys  at  their  villa,  and  found  heaven." 
him  more  unreasonable  than  ever,  vow- 


G   2 


MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston,  21,  Charles  Street, 
August  29ta,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  don't  know  how  I  can  employ  the 
evening  of  my  birthday  better  than  by  sitting  down  and 
beginning  a  letter  to  you.  I  have  heard  of  your  receiving  my 
last,  and  that  you  meant  to  reply  to  it  soon.  But  this  was  not 
in  the  bond,  and  whether  you  write  or  not,  I  must  let  you  hear 
from  me  from  time  to  time.  I  know  what  you  must  endure 
with  a  non-conductor  of  a  thousand  leagues  between  you  and 
this  great  battery,  which  is  sending  its  thrill  through  us  every 
night  and  morning.  I  know  that  every  different  handwriting 
on  an  envelope,  if  it  comes  from  a  friend,  has  its  special  interest, 
for  it  will  give  an  impression  in  some  way  differing  from  that 
of  all  others.  My  own  thoughts  have  been  turned  aside  for  a 
while  from  those  lesser  occurrences  of  the  day  which  would 
occupy  them  at  other  times  by  a  domestic  sorrow,  which, 
though  coming  in  the  course  of  nature,  and  at  a  period  when 
it  must  have  been  very  soon  inevitable,  has  yet  left  sadness  in 
mine  and  other  households.  My  mother  died  on  the  19th  of 
this  month  at  the  age  of  ninety-three,  keeping  her  lively 
sensibilities  and  sweet  intelligence  to  the  last.  My  brother 
John  had  long  cared  for  her  in  the  most  tender  way,  and  it 
almost  broke  his  heart  to  part  with  her.  She  was  a  daughter 
to  him,  she  said,  and  he  had  fondly  thought  that  love  and  care 
could  keep  her  frail  life  to  the  filling  up  of  a  century  or 
beyond  it.  It  was  a  pity  to  look  on  him  in  his  first  grief ; 
but  time,  the  great  consoler,  is  busy  with  his  anodyne,  and  he 
is  coming  back  to  himself.  My  mother  remembered  the  revo- 
lution well,  and  she  was  scared  by  the  story  of  the  redcoats 
coming  along  and  killing  everybody  as  they  went — she  having 
been  carried  from  Boston  to  Newburyport.  Why  should  I 
tell  you  this  ?  Our  hearts  lie  between  two  forces.  The  near 
ones  of  home  and  family,  and  those  that  belong  to  the  rest  of 
the  universe.  A  little  magnet  holds  its  armature  against  the 
dragging  of  our  own  planet  and  all  the  spheres. 

I  had  hoped  that  my  mother  might  have  lived  through  this 


1862.]  FOEECASTS  OF  THE  WAR.  85 

second  national  convulsion.  It  was  ordered  otherwise,  and 
with  the  present  prospects  I  can  hardly  lament  that  she  was 
spared  the  period  of  trial  that  remains.  How  long  that  is  to 
be  no  one  can  predict  with  confidence.  There  is  a  class  of 
men  one  meets  with  who  seem  to  consider  it  due  to  their  ante- 
cedents to  make  the  worst  of  everything.  I  suppose 

—  may  be  one  of  these.  I  met  him  a  day  or  two  since, 
and  lost  ten  minutes  in  talk  with  him  on  the  side  walk ;  lost 
them,  because  I  do  not  wish  to  talk  with  any  man  who  looks 
at  this  matter  empirically  as  an  unlucky  accident,  which  a 
little  prudence  might  have  avoided,  and  not  a  theoretical 
necessity.  However,  he  said  to  me  that  the  wisest  man  he 
knew — somebody  whose  name  I  did  not  know — said  to  him 
long  ago  that  this  war  would  outlast  him,  an  old  man,  and 
his  companion  also,  very  probably.  You  meet  another  man, 
and  he  begins  cursing  the  Government  as  the  most  tyrannical 
one  that  ever  existed.  "  That  is  not  the  question,"  I  answer. 
"  How  much  money  have  you  given  for  this  war  ?  How  many 
of  your  boys  have  gone  to  it  ?  How  much  of  your  own  body 

and  soul  have  you  given  to  it  ?  "     I  think  Mr. 

is  the  most  forlorn  of  all  the  Jeremiahs  I  meet  with.  Faith) 
faith  is  the  only  thing  that  keeps  a  man  up  in  times  like  these  ; 
and  those  persons  who,  by  temperament  or  underfeeding  of 
the  soul,  are  in  a  state  of  spiritual  anaemia,  are  the  persons  I 
like  least  to  meet,  and  try  hardest  not  to  talk  with. 

For  myself  I  do  not  profess  to  have  any  political  wisdom.  I 
read,  I  listen,  I  judge  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  The  best  talk  I 
have  heard  from  any  of  our  home  politicians  was  that  of  Banks, 
more  than  a  year  and  a  half  ago.  In  a  conversation  I  had  with 
him,  he  foreshadowed  more  clearly  the  plans  and  prospects, 
and  estimated  more  truly  the  resources  of  the  South  than  any 
one  else  with  whom  I  had  met.  But  prophets  in  America  and 
Europe  have  been  at  a  very  heavy  discount  of  late.  Count 
Gasparin  seems  to  me  to  have  the  broadest  and  keenest  under- 
standing of  the  aims  and  ends  of  this  armed  controversy.  If 
we  could  be  sure  of  no  intermeddling,  I  should  have  no  anxiety 
except  for  individuals  and  for  temporary  interests.  If  we  have 
grown  unmanly  and  degenerate  in  the  north  wind,  I  am  willing 


86  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  III. 

that  the  sirocco  should  sweep  us  off  from  the  soil.  If  the 
course  of  nature  must  be  reversed  for  us,  and  the  Southern 
Goths  must  march  to  the  "  beggarly  land  of  ice  "  to  overrun 
and  recolonise  us,  I  have  nothing  to  object.  But  I  have  a 
most  solid  and  robust  faith  in  the  sterling  manhood  of  the 
North,  in  its  endurance,  its  capacity  for  a  military  training, 
its  plasticity  for  every  need,  in  education,  in  political  equality, 
in  respect  for  man  as  man  in  peaceful  development,  which  is 
our  law,  in  distinction  from  aggressive  colonisation ;  in  human 
qualities  as  against  bestial  and  diabolical  ones ;  in  the  Lord 
as  against  the  devil.  If  I  never  see  peace  and  freedom  in  this 
land,  I  shall  have  faith  that  my  children  will  see  it.  If  they 
do  not  live  long  enough  to  see  it,  I  believe  their  children  will. 
The  revelations  we  have  had  from  the  Old  World  have  shed  a 
new  light  for  us  on  feudal  barbarism.  We  know  now  where 
we  are  not  to  look  for  sympathy.  But  oh !  it  would  have  done 
your  heart  good  to  see  the  processions  of  day  before  yesterday 
and  to-day,  the  air  all  aflame  with  flags,  the  streets  shaking 
with  the  tramp  of  long-stretched  ]ines,  and  only  one  feeling 
showing  itself,  the  passion  of  the  first  great  uprising,  only 
the  full  flower  of  which  that  was  the  opening  bud. 

There  is  a  defence  of  blubber  about  the  arctic  creatures 
through  which  the  harpoon  must  be  driven  before  the  vital 
parts  are  touched.  Perhaps  the  Northern  sensibility  is  pro- 
tected by  some  such  encasing  shield.  The  harpoon  is,  I  think, 
at  last  through  the  blubber.  In  the  meanwhile  I  feel  no 
doubt  in  my  own  mind  that  the  spirit  of  hostility  to  slavery 
as  the  cause  of  this  war  is  speedily  and  certainly  increasing. 
They  were  talking  in  the  cars  to-day  of  Fremont's  speech  at 
the  Tremont  Temple  last  evening.  His  allusions  to  slavery, 
you  know  what  they  must  have  been,  were  received  with  an 
applause  which  they  would  never  have  gained  a  little  while 
ago.  Nay,  I  think  a  miscellaneous  Boston  audience  would  be 
more  like  to  cheer  any  denunciation  of  slavery  now  than 
almost  any  other  sentiment. 

Wednesday  evening,  September  3rd. — I  have  waited  long 
enough.  We  get  the  most  confused  and  unsatisfactory  yet 
agitating  rumours.  Pope  seems  to  be  falling  back  on  the 


1862.]  ENTHUSIASM  AT   BOSTON.  87 

capital  after  having  got  the  worst  of  it  in  a  battle  on  the 
30th.  Since  that  there  has  been  little  fighting  so  far  as  we 
know,  but  this  noon  we  get  a  story  that  Stonewall  Jackson  is 
marching  by  Leesburg  on  Baltimore,  and  yesterday  we  learned 
that  Cincinnati  is  in  imminent  danger  of  a  rebel  invasion. 
How  well  I  remember  the  confidence  that  you  expressed  in 
General  Scott — a  confidence  which  we  all  shared !  The  old 
General  had  to  give  up,  and  then  it  was  nothing  but 
McClellan.  But  do  not  think  that  the  pluck  or  determina- 
tion of  the  North  has  begun  to  yield.  There  never  was 
such  a  universal  enthusiasm  for  the  defence  of  the  Union  and 
the  trampling  out  of  rebellion  as  at  this  perilous  hour.  I 
am  willing  to  believe  that  many  of  the  rumours  we  hear  are 
mere  fabrications.  I  won't  say  to  you  be  of  good  courage, 
because  men  of  ideas  are  not  put  down  by  the  accidents  of  a 
day  or  a  year. 

Yours  always, 

0.  W.  H. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Vienna, 
August  31s«,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — Bare — bare — bare  of  news,  events, 
objects  of  the  slightest  interest  to  you  or  any  one  else,  what 
need  have  I  to  apologise  for  silence  ?  Naked,  but  not  ashamed, 
I  involve  myself  in  my  virtue — while  you — if  like  kind  for- 
tune you  will  still  wag  your  swift  pen  at  me — si  celerem  quatis 
pennam — will  find  me  ever  grateful  or  even  trying  to  be  re- 
signed, if  you  do  not.  I  have  not  written  for  about  four 
months.  Even  to  my  little  Mary  I  am  obliged  now  to  write 
themes  instead  of  letters.  By  this  mail  I  send  her  one  "  on 
the  advantages  of  silence."  If  you  should  happen  to  meet 
her,  ask  her  to  show  it  to  you  that  you  may  see  to  what  a 
depth  of  imbecility  your  old  friend  has  descended.  I  have 
yours  of  the  27th  of  April  and  the  20th  of  June.  I  am  deeply 
grateful  for  them.  I  have  just  been  reading  them  both  over, 
and  you  will  be  glad  to  know  that  now,  after  the  lapse  of  fifty 


88  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

years,  which  is  about  the  distance  from  the  first  date  at  the 
rate  we  are  living  at,  there  is  no  false  colouring,  no  judgment 
turned  inside  out,  no  blundering  prophecy,  no  elation,  or  no 
despondency  which  subsequent  events  have  come  to  rebuke. 

Writing  as  you  do  to  me  out  of  the  kindness  of  your  heart 
and  the  fulness  of  your  head,  you  willingly  run  the  risk  of 
making  blunders  for  the  sake  of  giving  me,  in  your  vivid  and 
intense  way,  a  rapid  image  of  the  passing  moment.  I  strain 
my  eyes  across  the  Atlantic  through  the  stereoscope  you  so 
kindly  provide  me,  and  for  an  instant  or  two  I  am  with  you. 
I  think  very  often  of  your  Wendell.  He  typifies  so  well  to 
me  the  metamorphosis  of  young  America  from  what  it  was  in 
our  days,  Consuls  Planco.  There,  within  less  than  a  twelve- 
month after  leaving  college,  the  young  poet,  philosopher, 
artist,  has  become  a  man,  robustus  acri  militia  puer,  has  gone 
through  such  scenes  as  Ball's  Bluff,  Fair  Oaks,  and  the  seven 
days  before  Kichmond,  and,  even  while  I  write,  is  still  engaged, 
perchance,  in  other  portentous  events,  and  it  is  scarcely  a  year 
since  you  and  I  went  together  to  the  State  House  to  talk  with 
the  Governor  about  his  commission.  These  things  would 
hardly  be  so  startling  if  it  was  the  mere  case  of  a  young  man 
entering  the  army  and  joining  a  marching  regiment.  But 
when  a  whole  community  suddenly  transmutes  itself  into  an 
army,  and  the  "  stay-at-home  rangers  "  are  remembered  on  the 
fingers,  and  pointed  at  with  the  same,  what  a  change  must  be 
made  in  the  national  character. 

"Pfui  iiber  den  Buben, 
Hinter  den  Ofen, 
Hinter  den  Stiihlen, 
Hinter  den  Sophen," 

as  the  chivalrous  Koerner  sang. 

I  had  a  very  well-written  letter  the  other  day  from  a  young 
cousin  of  mine,  Julius  Lothrop  by  name,  now  serving  as 
sergeant  in  the  Massachusetts  24th.  I  need  not  say  how  I 
grieved  to  hear  that  Lowell  had  lost  another  nephew  and  a 
near  relative  of  your  wife  too.  You  mentioned  him  in  your 
very  last  letter  as  having  gained  health  and  strength  by  his 
campaigning.  There  is  something  most  touching  in  the  fact 


1862.]  EEFLECTIONS  OX  THE  WAK.  89 

that  those  two  youths,  Putman  and  Lowell,  both  scions  of  our 
most  honoured  families,  and  both  distinguished  among  their 
equals  for  talent,  character,  accomplishment,  and  virtue,  for 
all  that  makes  youth  venerable,  should  have  been  among  the 
earliest  victims  of  this  infernal  conspiracy  of  slaveholders. 
I  know  not  if  such  a  thought  is  likely  to  comfort  the  mourners, 
but  it  is  nevertheless  most  certain  that  when  such  seed  is  sown 
the  harvest  to  be  reaped  by  the  country  will  be  almost  price- 
less. Of  this  I  entertain  no  doubt  whatever.  God  knows  I 
was  never  an  optimist,  but  in  the  great  result  of  this  tremen- 
dous struggle  I  can  foresee  nothing  but  good.  The  courage 
and  the  determination  of  both  sides  being  equal,  the  victory 
must  be  to  the  largest  army  and  navy  and  the  longest  purse. 

What  has  so  long  held  back  the  imprisoned  power  of  the 
North,  during  all  these  dreary  years  of  the  slave  domination 
of  our  republic  was,  after  all,  a  moral  principle.  It  was  pushed 
to  excess  till  it  became  a  vice,  but  it  was  still  the  feeling  of 
patriotism  and  an  exaggerated  idea  of  public  faith.  There  is 
even  a  lingering  band  or  two  to  be  broken  yet  before  the 
great  spirit  of  the  North  is  completely  disenthralled.  But  I 
hope  I  am  not  mistaken  in  thinking  that  they  have  become 
weaker  than  packthread. 


To  Ms  Mother. 

Marien  Villa,  Voslau, 

September  8th,  1862. 

MY  DEAEEST  MOTHEK, — I  wish  it  were  possible  for  me  to 
say  anything  that  would  interest  you  from  this  place.  I 
should  like  to  write  you  at  least  a  note  once  a  week  to  assure 
you  of  my  affection ;  but  when  I  have  said  that,  it  seems  that 
there  was  nothing  left  to  say.  I  do  not  care  to  be  always 
talking  of  the  one  great  subject  which  occupies  all  our 
thoughts,  because,  in  the  first  place,  my  own  feelings  and 
opinions  are  so  different  from  those  which  you  are  most  in  the 
habit  of  hearing  that  you  must  sometimes  fail  to  sympathise 
with  me ;  and,  secondly,  there  is  always  such  a  difference  in 


90  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

my  position  when  writing  from  yours  when  reading.  Our 
latest  news  leave  the  Union  army  concentrating  on  the  Rappa- 
hannock,  with  McClellan  uniting  his  forces  with  Pope  and 
Burnside.  And  so  all  the  slaughter  and  fever  and  digging 
of  ditches  and  building  of  corduroy  roads  on  that  fatal  penin- 
sula has  been  for  nothing,  and  McClellan's  army,  what  is  left 
of  it,  is  about  where  it  was  six  months  ago. 

Well,  we  are  a  patient  and  long-suffering  people,  and  I 
admire  the  energy  and  courage  and  hopefulness  of  my  country- 
men more  than  I  can  express,  and  I  have  as  staunch  a  faith 
as  ever  in  the  ultimate  result,  although  it  may  be  delayed  for 
a  generation.  I  wish  I  had  as  much  faith  in  our  generals-in- 
chief.  I  know  nothing  of  parties  or  men  as  motives,  but 
certainly  the  peninsular  campaign  will  never  form  a  brilliant 
chapter  in  our  history.  I  can  only  hope  that  the  one  opening 
on  the  Rappahannock  may  be  more  successful.  But  perhaps 
ere  you  read  this  a  decisive  battle  may  have  been  fought.  At 
least  I  hope,  when  the  next  pull  comes,  we  may  not  be  on  the 
retreat.  Considering  that  McClellan  took  the  field  in  the 
spring  with  those  memorable  words,  "  We  have  had  our  last 
retreat,"  one  must  allow  that  he  has  given  the  country  enough 
of  that  bitter  dose.  Our  men  have  certainly  behaved  nobly. 
You  may  suppose  with  what  tearful  interest  we  read  of  the 
Cedar  Mountain  battle,  and  saw  the  well-known  and  familiar 
names  of  the  brave  youths  who  have  fallen.  But  it  is  such  a 
pang  to  speak  their  names,  and  words  of  consolation  to  the 
mourners  are  such  a  mockery  that  it  is  as  well  to  leave  them 
unsaid.  My  heart  thrilled  when  I  read  of  Gordon's  brigade, 
and  especially  of  the  devoted  and  splendid  Massachusetts  2nd, 
to  whom  I  had  the  honour  of  presenting  the  banner  on  that 
sunshiny  afternoon  about  a  year  ago.  Gordon  seems  to  have 
behaved  brilliantly.  Poor  Mr.  Savage!  I  hope  he  bears  the 
painful  captivity  of  his  son  well.  The  Eussells  are  expected 
here  soon,  I  believe. 

We  are  stagnant  as  usual  here.  I  try  to  write,  but  it  is 
hard  work  with  one's  thoughts  so  perpetually  absorbed  with 
our  own  war  against  tyrants  more  bloody  than  Philip  or  Alva, 
and  an  institution  more  accursed  than  the  Spanish  Inquisition. 


1802.]  J.  S.  MILL  ON  THE  WAK.  91 

The  ever-living  present  is  so  much  more  entrancing  with  its 
horrors  than  the  past,  which,  thank  God !  is  dead  and  buried 
with  its  iniquities.  We  remain  here  till  the  middle  of  October, 
and  shall  go  to  town  with  heavy  hearts,  for  in  the  winter  we 
must  go  into  the  world  and  see  society,  for  which  we  have 
little  inclination.  We  have  had  the  Hughes  (Tom  Brown) 
staying  with  us,  and  enjoyed  the  visit.  He  is  as  staunch  an 
American  as  I  am,  and  almost  as  much  interested  in  the  great 
struggle.  Miss  Stanley,  sister  of  Canon  Arthur  Stanley,  was 
with  them.  She  was  a  nurse  in  the  Crimea.  They  were  on  a 
rapid  tour  to  Constantinople. 

Good-bye,  my,  dear  mother.     Give  my  love  to  my  father 
and  my  precious  Mary  and  to  all  the  family. 

Believe  me,  your  ever  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill. 

September  Iltli,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIK, — I  value  the  permission  you  gave  me  to  cor- 
respond with  you  much  too  highly  not  to  avail  myself  of  it 
thus  early,  although  I  have  very  little  to  say  that  will  be  new, 
and  at  the  same  time  interesting,  to  one  whose  thoughts  are 
engrossed  as  yours  must  be.  If  you  see  Macmillan's  Maga- 
zine, which  has  from  the  beginning  been  steadily  on  the  right 
side  in  American  affairs,  you  must  have  remarked  the  '  Notes 
of  a  Journey  in  America/  which  have  been  in  the  course  of 
publication  for  some  months,  ending  with  a  general  summing 
up  in  the  September  number.  This  last  paper  especially 
appears  to  me  excellent,  and  likely  to  do  much  good  in 
England.  The  whole  series  has  been  reprinted  in  a  volume, 
with  the  name  of  the  writer,  Mr.  Edward  Dicey,  author  of 
a  recent  book  on  Italy  and  Eome.  You  will  probably  see 
the  Westminster  Eeview  of  next  month,  which  will  contain 
an  article  of  mine  on  the  American  question,  apropos  of 
Mr.  Cairnes's  book.  It  is  hastily  written,  and  slight,  for  such 
a  subject,  but  "every  little  helps,"  as  the  nursery  proverb 
says.  I  am  not  at  all  uneasy  about  public  opinion  here,  if 


92  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

only  the  North  is  successful.  The  great  number  of  well- 
meaning  people  and  sincere  enemies  of  slavery  who  have  been 
led  into  disapproving  of  your  resistance  to  the  South,  when 
carried  to  the  length  of  war,  have  been  chiefly  influenced  by 
thinking  the  re-conquest  of  the  South  impossible.  If  you 
prove  it  to  be  possible,  if  you  bring  the  Slave  States  under 
your  power,  if  you  make  use  of  that  power  to  reconstitute 
Southern  society  on  the  basis  of  freedom,  and  if  finally  you 
wind  up  the  financial  results  without  breaking  faith  with  any 
of  the  national  creditors  (among  whom  must  be  reckoned  the 
holders  of  depreciated  currency),  you  will  have  all  our  public 
with  you,  except  the  Tories,  who  will  be  mortified  that  what 
they  absurdly  think  an  example  of  the  failure  of  democracy 
should  be  exchanged  for  a  splendid  example  of  its  success. 
If  you  come  well  and  honourably  through  one  of  the  severest 
trials  which  a  nation  has  ever  undergone,  the  whole  futurity 
of  mankind  will  assume  a  brighter  aspect.  If  not,  it  will  for 
some  time  to  come  be  very  much  darkened. 

I  have  read  lately  two  writings  of  Northern  Americans  on 
the  subject  of  England,  which  show  a  very  liberal  appreciation 
of  the  misdirection  of  English  opinion  and  feeling  respecting 
the  contest.  One  is  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed's  letter,  which  was 
published  in  the  newspapers,  and  in  which  those  just  and 
generous  allowances  are  made  for  us  which  many  of  us  have 
not  made  for  you.  The  other  is  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson's 
'  England  during  our  War,'  reprinted  from  the  New  Englander, 
which  is  even  over-indulgent  to  our  people,  but  too  severe  on 
our  Government.  I  believe  that  our  Government  has  felt  more 
rightly  all  through  than  a  majority  of  the  public. 

We  shall  be  at  this  address  until  the  end  of  November ; 
afterwards  at  Blackheath  Park,  Kent.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
if  your  occupations  wuuld  allow  of  your  writing  to  me  it  would 
naturally  give  me  great  pleasure,  but  would  make  me  better 
able  to  be  of  use  to  a  cause  which  I  have  as  much  at  heart  as 
even  yourself. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir, 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  S.  MILL. 


1862.]  THE  LAWS  OF  WAR.  93 

To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
September  21st,  1862. 

DEAREST  LITTLE  MARY, — Your  last  letters,  1st  and  2nd 
September,  reached  us  with  promptness,  and  gave  us  the  same 
mingled  pain  and  pleasure  that  your  letters  always  do.  You 
are  a  dear  darling  to  write  to  us  so  faithfully  and  conscien- 
tiously, and  we  look  forward  to  our  weekly  budget  from  "  our 
own  correspondent "  with  great  eagerness.  You  say  in  your 
last  that  Mrs.  Lothrop's  third  son  is  going  to  the  war.  I 
cannot  sufficiently  admire  their  spirit  and  patriotism  and  her 
courage.  I  had  such  a  nice,  interesting,  well-written  letter 
from  Julius  at  Newberne.  I  wish  you  would  ask  Sirs.  Lothrop 
when  she  writes  to  thank  him  for  it,  and  to  say  that  I  have 
not  yet  answered  it  simply  because  I  have  nothing  agreeable 
or  interesting  to  say  from  this  part  of  the  world.  One  of  these 
days,  when  affairs  are  looking  less  gloomy,  I  shall  take  pleasure 
in  sending  an  answer  to  his  letter.  Meanwhile  I  am  delighted 
to  hear  of  his  promotion  to  a  lieutenancy,  and  wish  him  every 
success. 

The  most  amazing  part  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  people 
should  now  go  about  talking  to  each  other  of  the  "  consti- 
tution and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  "  exactly  as  if  we  were 
at  peace.  We  are  not  in  peace.  We  are  in  war.  And  the 
law  of  war  is  perfectly  simple.  It  is  to  uss  all  and  every 
means  necessary  for  overcoming  the  resistance  of  your  enemy. 
Had  Government  issued  a  proclamation  of  universal  freedom 
to  all  men  in  the  exercise  of  its  unequivocal  and  unquestioned 
rights  as  a  belligerent  at  about  the  time  when  the  "  Young 
Napoleon"  was  burrowing  in  the  Chickahominy  Swamps,  it 
would  have  done  more  towards  overcoming  the  resistance  of 
the  enemy  by  cutting  off  the  great  source  of  their  supplies 
than  the  whole  of  that  ignominious  campaign  in  the  peninsula, 
which  has  brought  us,  in  spite  of  the  unparalleled  heroism, 
endurance,  patience,  and  unflinching  courage  of  our  soldiers, 
back  to  exactly  the  same  point  (to  make  the  best  of  it)  from 
which  we  started  a  year  ago.  Tell  Dr.  Holmes  that  I  received 


9i  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

his  letter  of  the  4th  September  yesterday,  and  that  it  gave 
me  inexpressible  comfort. 

I  shall  write  him  next  week.  I  agree  with  every  word  he 
says,  and  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  hear  him  say  that 
the  anti-slavery  feeling  is  on  the  increase  in  Boston.  Of 
one  thing  I  feel  perfectly  certain,  although  everything  else 
seems  obscure  as  midnight.  If  Jeff.  Davis  gets  half  the 
country,  he  will  get  the  whole.  If  we  keep  half,  we  shall  keep 
the  whole.  I  mean  by  "we"  the  anti-slavery  party  of  the 
country. 

As  to  arming  the  slaves  and  drilling  them  as  soldiers,  I  do 
not  care  so  much  about  that,  except  as  a  means  of  preventing 
servile  insurrections.  Black  men,  as  well  as  white  men,  are 
susceptible  of  military  discipline,  and  soldiers  in  the  army 
of  whatever  colour  must  be  shot  for  massacre  and  murder. 
The  very  reason  which  always  prevented  me  from  being  an 
abolitionist  before  the  war,  in  spite  of  my  anti-slavery  senti- 
ments and  opinions,  now  forces  me  to  be  an  emancipationist. 
I  did  not  wish  to  see  the  Government  destroyed,  which  was 
the  avowed  purpose  of  the  abolitionists.  When  this  became 
the  avowed  purpose  of  the  slaveholders,  when  they  made  war 
upon  us,  the  whole  case  was  turned  upside  down.  The  anti- 
slavery  men  became  the  Unionists,  the  slaveholders  the 
Destructionists.  This  is  so  plain  that  no  mathematical  axiom 
is  plainer.  There  is  no  way  of  contending  now  with  the 
enemy  at  our  gates  but  by  emancipation. 

Poor  Fletcher  Webster !  I  saw  him  on  the  common  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment :  he  looked  like  a  man  and  has  died  like 
one.  I  am  beginning  to  think  that  they  who  are  dying  for 
their  country  are  happier  than  those  of  us  who  are  left. 
Another  old  schoolfellow  of  mine  was  killed  too,  Phil.  Kearney 
(General  Kearney) — the  bravest  of  the  brave.  Good-bye, 
darling.  My  love  to  grandmamma  and  grandpapa  and  all  the 
family. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


1SG2J  LINCOLN'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  PEOCLAMATION.  95 


From  Mr.  John  Stuart  Hill. 

Saint  Yirain,  Avignon, 

October  31st,  1862. 

MY  DEAK  SIR, — Allow  me  to  thank  you  most  warmly  for 
your  long  and  interesting  letter,  which,  if  it  had  been  twice 
as  long  as  it  was,  would  only  have  pleased  me  more.  There 
are  few  persons  that  I  have  only  seen  once  with  whom  I  so 
much  desire  to  keep  up  a  communication  as  with  you ;  and 
the  importance  of  what  I  learn  from  you  respecting  matters 
so  full  of  momentous  consequences  to  the  world  would  make 
such  communication  most  valuable  to  me,  even  if  I  did  not 
wish  for  it  on  personal  grounds.  The  state  of  affairs  in 
America  has  materially  improved  since  you  wrote  by  the 
defeat  of  the  enemy  in  Maryland  and  their  expulsion  from  it, 
and  still  more  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  anti-slavery  proclamation, 
which  no  American,  I  think,  can  have  received  with  more 
exultation  than  I  did.  It  is  of  the  highest  importance,  and 
more  so  because  the  manifest  reluctance  with  which  the  Presi- 
dent made  up  his  mind  to  that  decided  step  indicates  that  the 
progress  of  opinion  in  the  country  had  reached  the  point  of 
seeing  its  necessity  for  the  effectual  prosecution  of  the  war. 
The  adhesion  of  so  many  governors  of  States,  some  of  them 
originally  Democrats,  is  a  very  favourable  sign  ;  and  thus  far 
the  measure  does  not  seem  to  have  very  materially  weakened 
your  hold  upon  the  border  Slave  States.  The  natural  ten- 
dency will  be,  if  the  war  goes  on  successfully,  to  reconcile 
those  States  to  emancipating  their  own  slaves,  availing  them- 
selves of  the  pecuniary  offers  made  by  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. I  still  feel  some  anxiety  as  to  the  reception  to  be 
given  to  the  measure  by  Congress  when  it  meets,  and  I  should 
much  like  to  know  what  are  your  expectations  on  that  point. 

In  England  the  proclamation  has  only  increased  the  venom 
of  those  who,  after  taunting  you  so  long  with  caring  nothing 
for  abolition,  now  reproach  you  for  your  abolitionism  as  the 
worst  of  your  crimes.  But  you  will  find  that  whenever  any 
name  is  attached  to  the  wretched  effusions,  it  is  always  that  of 
some  deeply-dyed  Tory — generally  the  kind  of  Tory  to  whom 


96  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  in. 

slavery  is  rather  agreeable  than  not,  or  who  so  hate  your 
democratic  institutions  that  they  would  be  sure  to  inveigh 
against  you  whatever  you  did,  and  are  enraged  at  being  no 
longer  able  to  taunt  you  with  being  false  to  your  own  prin- 
ciples. It  is  from  these  also  that  we  are  now  beginning  to 
hear,  what  disgusts  me  more  than  all  the  rest,  the  base  doc- 
trine that  it  is  for  the  interest  of  England  that  the  American 
Kepublic  should  be  broken  up.  Think  of  us  as  ill  as  you 
may  (and  we  have  given  you  abundant  cause),  but  do  not, 
I  entreat  you,  think  that  the  general  English  public  is  so 
base  as  this.  Our  national  faults  are  not  now  of  that  kind, 
and  I  firmly  believe  that  the  feeling  of  almost  all  English 
Liberals,  even  those  whose  language  is  most  objectionable,  is 
one  of  sincere  regret  for  the  disruption  which  they  think 
inevitable.  As  long  as  there  is  a  Tory  party  in  England,  it 
will  rejoice  at  anything  which  injures  or  discredits  American 
institutions ;  but  the  Liberal  party — who  are  now,  and  are 
likely  to  remain,  much  the  strongest — are  naturally  your 
friends  and  allies,  and  will  return  to  that  position  when  once 
they  see  that  you  are  not  engaged  in  a  hopeless,  and  there- 
fore, as  they  think,  an  irrational  and  unjustifiable  contest. 
There  are  writers  enough  here  to  keep  up  the  fight,  and  meet 
the  malevolent  comments  on  all  your  proceedings  by  right 
ones.  Besides  Cairnes,  and  Dicey,  and  Harriet  Martineau, 
and  Ludlow  and  Hughes ;  besides  the  Daily  News,  and  Mac- 
millan,  and  the  Star,  there  are  now  the  Westminster  and  the 
London  Review,  to  which  several  of  the  best  writers  have 
now  gone  over ;  there  is  Ellison,  of  Liverpool,  the  author  of 
'  Slavery  and  Secession/  and  editor  of  a  monthly  economical 
journal,  the  Exchange ;  and  there  are  other  writers,  less  known, 
who,  if  events  go  on  favourably,  will  rapidly  multiply. 

Here  in  France  the  state  of  opinion  on  the  subject  is  most 
gratifying.  All  liberal  Frenchmen  seem  to  have  been  with 
you  from  the  first.  They  did  not  know  more  about  the  subject 
than  the  English,  but  their  instincts  were  truer.  By  the  way, 
what  did  you  think  of  the  narrative  of  the  campaign  on  the 
Potomac  in  the  Eevue  des  Deux  Mondes,  of  October  15th,  by  the 
Comte  de  Paris  ?  It  looks  veracious,  and  is  certainly  intelli- 


18G2.]  ACTION   OF  THE  ENGLISH  GOVERNMENT.  97 

gent,  and  in  general  effect  likely,  I  should  think,  to  be  very 
useful  to  the  cause.  I  still  think  you  take  too  severe  a  view 
of  the  conduct  of  our  Government.  I  grant  that  the  extra 
official  dicta  of  some  of  the  ministers  have  been  very  unfortu- 
nate. But  as  a  Government,  I  do  not  see  that  their  conduct  is 
objectionable.  The  port  of  Nassau  may  be  all  that  you  say  it 
is,  but  the  United  States  also  have  the  power,  and  have  used 
it  largely,  of  supplying  themselves  with  munitions  of  war  from 
our  ports.  If  the  principle  of  neutrality  is  once  accepted,  our 
markets  must  be  open  to  both  sides  alike,  and  the  general 
opinion  in  England  is  (I  do  not  say  whether  rightly  or 
wrongly)  that  if  the  course  adopted  is  favourable  to  either 
side,  it  is  to  the  United  States,  since  the  Confederates,  owing 
to  the  blockade  of  their  ports,  have  so  much  less  power  to  take 
advantage  of  the  facilities  extended  equally  to  both.  Then, 
again,  if  the  Tuscarora  was  ordered  away,  the  Sumter  was 
so  too.  What  you  mention  about  a  seizure  of  arms  by  our 
Government  must,  I  feel  confident,  have  taken  place  during 
the  Trent  difficulty,  at  which  time  alone,  neither  before  nor 
after,  has  the  export  of  arms  to  America  been  interdicted.  It 
is  very  possible  that  too  much  may  have  been  made  of  Butler's 
proclamation,  and  that  he  was  more  wrong  in  phraseology  than 
substance.  But  with  regard  to  the  watchword  said  to  have 
been  given  by  Pakenham  at  New  Orleans,  I  have  always 
hitherto  taken  it  for  a  mere  legend,  like  the  exactly  parallel 
ones  which  grew  up  under  our  eyes  in  Paris,  in  1848,  respect- 
ing the  Socialist  insurrection  of  June.  What  authority  there 
may  be  for  it  I  do  not  know ;  but  if  it  is  true,  nothing  can 
mark  more  strongly  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
European  standard  of  belligerent  rights  since  the  wars  of  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  for  if  any  English  commander  at 
the  present  time  were  to  do  the  like,  he  could  never  show  his 
face  in  English  society  (even  if  he  escaped  being  broken  by  a 
court-martial)  ;  and  I  think  we  are  entitled  to  blame  in  others 
what  none  of  us,  of  the  present  generation  at  least,  would  be 
capable  of  perpetrating. 

You  are  perhaps  hardly  aware  how  little  the  English  of 
the  present  day  feel  of  solidarite  with  past  generations.     We 

VOL.  II.  H 


98  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  III. 

do  not  feel  ourselves  at  all  concerned  to  justify  our  prede- 
cessors. Foreigners  reproved  us  with  having  been  the  great 
enemies  of  neutral  rights  so  long  as  we  were  belligerents,  and 
for  turning  round  and  stickling  for  them  now  when  we  are 
neutrals ;  but  the  real  fact  is,  we  are  convinced,  and  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  (what  our  Liberal  party  said  even  at  the 
time),  that  our  policy  in  that  matter  in  the  great  Continental 
war  was  totally  wrong.  But  while  I  am  anxious  that  Liberal 
and  friendly  Americans  should  not  think  worse  of  us  than  we 
really  deserve,  I  am  deeply  conscious  and  profoundly  grieved 
and  mortified  that  we  deserve  so  ill,  and  are  making  in  conse- 
quence so  pitiful  a  figure  before  the  world,  with  which,  if  we 
&re  not  daily  and  insultingly  taxed  by  all  Europe,  it  is  only 
because  our  enemies  are  glad  to  see  us  doing  exactly  what 
they  expected,  justifying  their  opinion  of  us  and  acting  in  a 
way  which  they  think  perfectly  natural,  because  they  think  it 
perfectly  selfish. 

If  you  kindly  favour  me  with  another  letter  here,  it  is 
desirable  that  it  should  arrive  before  the  end  of  November. 
After  that  time  my  address  will  be  Blackheath  Park,  Kent. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir, 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  S.  MILL. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Vienna, 
November  2nd,  18G2. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES, — More  and  more  does  it  become  difficult 
for  me  to  write  to  you.  I  am  greedier  than  ever  for  your 
letters,  but  the  necessary  vapidity  of  anything  I  can  send  to 
you  in  return  becomes  more  apparent  to  me  every  day.  It 
seems  to  me  that  by  the  time  one  of  my  notes  makes  its  way 
to  you  in  Boston  it  must  have  faded  into  a  blank  bit  of  paper. 
Where  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  one's  surroundings  that 
can  interest  a  friend,  the  most  eloquent  thing  would  seem  to 
be  to  hold  one's  tongue.  At  least,  however,  I  can  thank  you 
most  warmly  for  your  last  letter.  You  know  full  well  how 


1862.]  INCIDENTS   OF   THE   WAR.  99 

interested  I  am  in  everything  you  can  write,  whether  of  specu- 
lation or  of  narration.  Especially  am  I  anxious  to  hear  all 
that  you  have  to  say  of  Wendell's  career.  Of  course  his 
name  among  the  wounded  in  the  Battle  of  Antietam  in- 
stantly caught  our  eyes,  and  though  we  felt  alarmed  and 
uncomfortable,  yet  fortunately  it  was  stated  in  the  first  in- 
telligence we  received  that  the  wound,  although  in  the  neck, 
was  not  a  dangerous  one.  I  could  not  write  to  you,  however, 
until  I  felt  assured  that  he  was  doing  well.  I  suppose 
Wendell  has  gone  back  to  his  regiment  before  this,  and  God 
knows  whether  there  has  not  already  been  another  general 
engagement  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Potomac.  What 
a  long  life  of  adventure  and  experience  that  boy  has  had 
in  the  fifteen  months  which  have  elapsed  since  I  saw  him, 
with  his  Pylades,  seated  at  the  Autocrat's  breakfast  table  in 
Charles  Street ! 

Mary  told  me  of  his  meeting  with  Hallo  well,  wounded, 
being  brought  from  the  field  at  the  same  time  with  himself, 
and  of  both  being  put  together  in  the  same  house.  We  are 
fortunate  in  having  a  very  faithful  little  chronicler  in  Mary, 
and  she  tells  us  of  many  interesting  and  touching  inci- 
dents that  otherwise  might  never  reach  us.  She  has  also 
given  us  the  details  of  the  noble  Wilder  D  wight's  death.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  say  how  deeply  we  were  moved.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  knowing  him  well,  and  I  always  appreciated  his 
energy,  his  manliness  and  his  intelligent  cheerful  heroism.  I 
look  back  upon  him  now  as  a  kind  of  heroic  type  of  what  a 
young  New  Englander  ought  to  be  and  was.  After  all,  what 
was  your  Chevy  Chase  to  stir  blood  with  like  a  trumpet  ?  What 
noble  principle,  what  deathless  interest  was  there  at  stake  ? 
Nothing  but  a  bloody  fight  between  a  set  of  noble  gamekeepers 
on  one  side,  and  of  noble  poachers  on  the  other  ?  And  because 
they  fought  well  and  hacked  each  other  to  pieces  like  devils, 
they  have  been  heroes  for  centuries. 

Of  course  you  know  of  Cairnes's  book,  and  of  John  Mill's 
article  in  the  Westminster  Review  for  October,  and  of  the 
sustained  pluck  and  intelligence  of  the  two  Liberal  journals  in 
England,  the  Daily  News  and  the  Star.  As  for  John  Bright,  I 

H  2 


100  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  Ill, 

hope  one  day  to  see  a  statue  raised  to  him  in  Washington.  We 
must  accept  our  position  frankly.  We  are  Mudsills  beloved 
of  the  Kadicals.  The  negro  breeders  are  aristocrats,  and,  like 
Mrs.  Jarley,  the  pride  of  the  nobility  and  gentry. 

Tell  me,  when  you  write,  something  of  our  State  politics.  It 
cannot  be  that  these  factionists  can  do  any  harm.  But  it  is 
most  mortifying  to  me  that  Boston  of  all  the  towns  in  the 
world  should  be  the  last  stronghold  of  the  pro-slavery  party. 
I  was  interested  in  the  conversation  which  you  report.  "  How 
many  sons  have  you  sent  to  the  war  ?  How  much  have  you 
contributed?  How  much  of  your  life  have  you  put  into 
it  ?  "  I  hope  there  are  not  many  who  hold  themselves  quite 
aloof.  For  my  own  part  I  am  very  distant  in  body,  but  in 
spirit  I  am  never  absent  from  the  country.  I  never  knew 
before  what  love  of  country  meant.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
do  much  for  the  cause.  I  have  no  sons  to  give  to  the  country, 
In  money  I  have  contributed  my  mite.  I  hope  you  will  forgive 
me  for  mentioning  this  circumstance.  I  do  so  simply  that  you 
may  know  that  I  have  not  neglected  a  sacred  duty.  In  these 
days  in  our  country  of  almost  fabulous  generosity,  I  am  well 
aware  that  what  I  am  able  to  give  is  the  veriest  trifle  ;  but  as  it 
is  possible  you  might  hear  that  I  have  done  nothing,!  take  leave 
to  mention  this,  knowing  that  you  will  not  misunderstand  me. 
I  am  not  able  to  do  as  much  as  I  ought.  Your  letters  are- 
intensely  interesting.  It  isn't  my  fault  if  mine  are  stupid. 
Mary  and  Lily  join  me  in  sincerest  regards  to  you  and 
yours. 

Ever  your  old  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 


Vienna,  20  Favoriten  Strasse  Wieden, 
November  25th,  1862. 


DEAEEST  LITTLE  MAKY, — We  jog  on  here  much  as  usual. 
We  are  fortunate  in  our  pleasant  house  and  garden,  so  that 
the  external  physical  influences  are  not  so  gloomy  as  they 


; 


1862.]  FRANCE  AND  AMERICA.  101 

were  last  winter,  but  in  other  respects  we  are  rather  dismal, 
being  so  far  away  from  the  centre  of  all  interest,  our  own 
beloved  country.  It  is  very  probable  that  I  shall  not  live  to 
see  the  end  of  this  great  tragedy  which  seems  to  have  hardly 
passed  its  first  act.  But  you  may  do  so,  and  when  you  do, 
you  will  see  a  great  commonwealth,  the  freest  and  the  noblest 
that  ever  existed  in  history,  purged  of  the  foul  disorder  which 
has  nearly  eaten  away  its  vitals.  This  war  is  a  purifying 
process,  but  it  seems  that  a  whole  generation  of  youths  has 
to  be  sacrificed  before  we  can  even  see  the  end. 

When  the  news  of  the  attempt  of  the  French  Emperor  to 
interfere  in  our  affairs  in  favour  of  the  slaveholders  reaches 
America,  I  hope  it  may  open  the  eyes  of  our  people  to  the 
danger  ever  impending  over  them  from  abroad.  You  will  see 
that  this  is  distinctly  intimated  in  the  despatch  of  Drouyn  de 
1'Huys.  The  party  of  peace  is  supposed]  to  have  triumphed, 
and,  of  course,  peace  to  the  Europeans  means  the  dismem- 
berment of  the  Kepublic  and  the  establishment  of  the  slave- 
holders' confederacy.  I  consider  the  25,000  majority  in 
glorious  Massachusetts  after  the  proclamation  as  a  greater 
monument  of  triumph  in  the  onward  march  of  civilization  on 
our  continent  than  anything  that  has  yet  happened.  I  have 
somewhat  recovered  from  the  spleen  and  despondency  into 
which  I  was  first  thrown  by  the  first  accounts  of  the  elections 
in  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio.  After  all,  when  one 
makes  an  arithmetical  calculation  we  see  that  the  popular 
vote  in  the  great  States  is  very  nearly  balanced,  and  when 
we  reflect  that  it  was  really  a  vote  upon  thej[emancipation 
proclamation,  the  progress  is  enormous.  Two  years  hence 
there  will  be  a  popular  majority  for  emancipation  as  large  as 
there  was  for  non-extension  in  1860.  This  is  true  progress. 
Moreover  our  majority  in  Massachusetts  is  almost  equal  to 
the  democratic  majority  in  New  York,  Ohio,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania combined. 

The  President's  proclamation  was  just  in  time.  Had  it 
been  delayed  it  is  possible  that  England  would  have  accepted 
the  invitation  of  France,  and  that  invitation  was  in  reality 
to  recognise  the  slaveholders'  confederacy,  and  to  make  with 


102  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  HI. 

it  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive.  I  am  not  exaggerating. 
The  object  is  distinctly  to  unite  all  Europe  against  us,  to 
impose  peace,  and  to  forcibly  dismember  our  country.  Nothing 
has  saved  us  from  this  disaster  thus  far  except  the  anti-slavery 
feeling  in  England,  which  throughout  the  country,  although  not 
so  much  in  high  places,  is  the  predominant  popular  instinct 
in  England  which  no  statesman  dares  confront.  Thank  God ! 
Sumner  is  re-elected,  or  is  sure  of  it,  I  suppose,  and  Sam 
Hooper  too.  The  "  people  "  of  Massachusetts  have  succeeded 
in  electing  five  senators  out  of  forty,  thirty  representatives  out 
of  a  few  hundred  and  half  a  Congress  man.1  If  McClellan 
had  been  an  abolitionist  together  with  his  military  talents, 
which  are  certainly  very  respectable,  he  would  have  been  a 
great  man.  This  is  a  great  political  and  social  revolution, 
and  not  an  ordinary  war.  Good-bye,  my  darling.  Your 
letters  give  us  great  pleasure.  Mr.  Sumner  is  a  high-minded, 
pure-minded  patriot,  and  his  rejection  by  Massachusetts  would 
be  a  misfortune  and  a  disgrace.  Mr.  Hooper,  too,  is  eminently 
qualified  for  his  post,  and  I  beg  you  to  give  him  my  most 
sincere  congratulations  at  his  re-election,  which  I  at  one  time 
felt  was  rather  doubtful. 

Ever  thine  in  storm  and  shine  and  brine, 

PAPAGEI. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

December  15th,  1862. 

....  Mrs.  Holmes,  who  is  a  judge,  I  can  tell  you  (being 
President  of  the  Industrial  Association),  tells  me  that  your 
Mary  is  a  most  excellent  worker  and  a  most  agreeable  young 
lady.  "  She  never  stops,  she  goes  right  ahead,"  are  the 
precise  words  of  Mrs.  President,  who  always  means  exactly 

what  she  says.  Also  Mrs.  H tells  me  that  Mary  is 

looking  particularly  well. 

As  I  am  in  the  vein  of  saying  things  that  ought  to  please 
you,  let  me  say  that  my  heart  always  swells  with  pride,  and  a 

1  The  Senators  and  Eepresentatives       State  by  opponents  of  the  national  ad- 
were  elected  to  the  Legislature  of  the       ministration. 


1862.]  "MEKCANTILE  MATERIALISM."  103 

glitter  comes  over  my  eyes  when  I  read  or  hear  your  denun- 
ciations of  the  enemies  of  liberty  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
your  noble  pleas  for  the  great  system  of  self-government  now 
on  its  trial  in  a  certain  sense — say  rather  now  putting  our 
people  on  trial  to  see  whether  they  are  worthy  of  it.  There 
were  many  reasons  why  you  might  have  lost  your  passion  for 
a  Eepublican  Government.  The  old  civilizations  welcome 
you  as  an  ornament  to  their  highest  circles — at  home  you  of 
course  meet  in  the  upper  political  spheres  much  that  is  not  to- 
your  taste.  But  you.  remain  an  idealist,  as  all  generous 
natures  do  and  must.  I  sometimes  think  it  is  the  only 
absolute  line  of  division  between  men — that  which  separates 
the  men  who  hug  the  actual  from  those  who  stretch  their  arms 
to  embrace  the  possible.  I  reduce  my  points  of  contact  with 
the  first  class  to  a  minimum.  When  I  meet  them  I  let  them 
talk  for  the  most  part,  for  there  is  no  profit  in  discussing  any 
living  question  with  men  who  have  no  sentiments,  and  the 
non-idealists  have  none.  We  don't  talk  music  to  those  who 
have  no  ear.  Why  talk  of  'the  great  human  interests  to 
men  who  have  lost  all  their  moral  sensibilities,  or  who  never 
had  any? 

You  know  quite  as  well  as  I  do  that  accursed  under-current 
of  mercantile  materialism  which  is  trying  all  the  time  to- 
poison  the  fountains  of  the  national  conscience.  You  know 
better  than  I  do  the  contortions  of  that  detested  horde  of 
mercenary  partisans  who  would  in  a  moment  accept  Jeff.  Davis, 
the  slave  trade,  and  a  Southern  garrison  in  Boston  to  get  back 
their  Post  Offices,  and  their  Custom  Houses,  where  the  bread 
they  had  so  long  eaten  was  covered  with  slime,  like  that  of 
their  brother  serpents,  before  it  was  swallowed.  The  mean 
sympathisers  with  the  traitors  are  about  in  the  streets  in  many 
aspects :  you  can  generally  tell  the  more  doubtful  ones  by  the 
circumstance  that  they  have  a  great  budget  of  complaints 
against  the  Government — that  their  memory  is  exceedingly 
retentive  of  every  reverse  and  misfortune,  and  that  they  turn 
the  small  end  of  their  opera-glasses  towards  everything  that 
looks  encouraging.  I  do  not  think  strange  of  this  in  old 
men — they  wear  their  old  opinions  like  their  old  clothes  until 


104  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

they  are  threadbare,  and  we  need  them  as  standards  of  past 
thought  which  we  may  reckon  our  progress  by,  as  the  ship 
wants  her  stationary  log  to  tell  her  headway.  But  to  meet 
young  men  who  have  breathed  this  American  air  without 
taking  the  contagious  fever  of  liberty — whose  hands  lie  as  cold 
and  flabby  in  yours  as  the  fin  of  a  fish,  on  the  morning  of  a 
victory — this  is  the  hardest  thing  to  bear.  Oh,  if  the  bullets 
would  only  go  to  the  hearts  that  have  no  warm  human  blood 
in  them  !  But  the  most  generous  of  our  youth  are  the  price 
that  we  must  pay  for  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth,  which 

are  to  be  born  of  this  fiery  upheaval. 

***** 

Let  us  keep  up  our  courage  for  our  country  and  ourselves. 
It  is  harder  for  you,  I  have  no  doubt,  than  for  me  at  home,  and 
getting  the  news  two  or  three  times  daily.  Many  things  that 
may  sound  ill  do  not  worry  me  long,  for  I  am  a  man  of  large 
faith,  and  though  the  devil  is  a  personage  of  remarkable 
talents,  I  think  the  presiding  Wisdom  is  sure  to  be  too  much 
for  him  in  the  end.  We  are  nervous  just  now  and  easily  put 
down ;  but  if  we  are  to  have  a  second  national  birth,  it  must  be 
purchased  by  throes  and  agonies,  harder  perhaps  than  we  have 
yet  endured.  I  think  of  you  all  very  often ;  do  remember  me 
and  my  wife  (who  is  giving  all  her  time  to  good  deeds)  most 
kindly  to  your  wife  and  daughters, 

Yours  always  in  faith  and  hope, 

0.  W.  H. 


To  Us  Mother. 

Vienna, 
December  22nd,  1862. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — It  is  long  since  I  have  written,  and, 
indeed,  I  have  been  far  from  well  for  some  time.  Nothing 
serious  or  which  can  cause  anxiety,  but  making  me  uncom- 
fortable and  almost  incapable  of  writing.  I  cannot,  however, 
let  the  Christmas-tide  pass  over  without  sending  you  my 
dearest  and  best  greetings  and  wishes  for  health  and  happi- 
ness. Thank  God,  however,  I  entertain  the  hope  of  living  to 


1862.]  THE  CROWN  PRINCESS  OF  PRUSSIA.  105 

see  the  day  when  even  in  Boston  there  will  be  no  pro-slavery 
party,  because  when  there  is  no  longer  slavery  there  can  no 
longer  be  a  party  to  support  it.  ... 

The  young  Crown  Princess  of  Prussia  (Princess  Eoyal  of 
England)  was  here  for  three  days  a  little  while  ago.  The 
morning  after  her  arrival,  I  received  a  note  from  my  colleague 
the  Prussian  Minister,  in  whose  house  she  was  staying,  inform- 
ing me  she  was  very  desirous  of  making  my  acquaintance, 
having  been  lately  reading  my  works,  etc.,  and  requesting  me 
to  call  that  morning.  This  I  accordingly  did,  and  was 
received  very  kindly  by  the  young  Princess  and  her  husband, 
and  spent  a  very  agreeable  half-hour  with  them  quite  alone. 
She  is  rather  petite,  has  a  fresh  young  face,  with  pretty 
features,  fine  teeth,  and  a  frank  and  agreeable  smile,  and  an 
interested,  earnest,  and  intelligent  manner.  Nothing  can  be 
simpler  or  more  natural  than  her  style,  which  I  should  say 
was  the  perfection  of  good  breeding.  She  was  in  close 
mourning.  She  said  many  complimentary  things  about  my 
writings,  and  indeed  I  may  say  that  I  heard  from  others,  Lord 
Bloomfield  and  Baron  Werther,  for  instance,  that  she  was  one 
of  my  most  enthusiastic  readers.  I  say  this  because  I  think 
it  will  please  you. 

She  had  also  been  reading  Froude,  whom  she  much  admired. 
I  told  her  that  he  was  a  friend  of  mine,  and  that  I  too  enter- 
tained the  highest  opinion  of  him  as  a  historian,  although 
he  had  by  no  means  converted  me  to  his  faith  in  Henry  VIII. 
The  Princess  was  evidently  disposed  to  admire  that  poly- 
gamous party,  and  was  also  a  great  adorer  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. Whence  I  concluded  that  she  had  not  read  my  last 
two  volumes,  as  she  would  hardly  have  expected  entire  sym- 
pathy from  me  in  this  respect.  I  told  her  that  although  I 
had  great  respect  for  Queen  Elizabeth's  genius  and  accom- 
plishments and  energy,  I  was  not  one  of  her  thick  and  thin 
admirers.  She  spoke  of  Carlyle's  last  work — I  mean  his 
History  of  Frederick  the  Great.  I  said  that  Carlyle's  other 
works  seemed  to  me  magnificent,  wonderful  monuments  of 
poetry  and  imagination,  profound  research,  and  most  original 
humour.  But  that  I  thought  him  a  most  immoral  writer,  from 


106  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  III. 

his  exaggerated  reverence  for  brute  force,  which  he  was  so  apt 
to  confound  with  wisdom  and  genius.  A  world  governed  d  la 
Carlyle  would  be  a  pandemonium.  The  young  Prince  is  tall, 
blond,  soldierly,  intelligent,  with  frank  agreeable  manners. 
Baron  Werther  told  me  last  night  that  I  ought  to  feel  myself 
complimented,  as  I  was  the  only  person  outside  of  the  Imperial 
family  whom  the  Princess  had  seen  in  Vienna,  except  the 
English  Ambassador  and  Lady  Bloomfield. 

We  have  very  pleasant  bright  winter  weather  here,  never 
much  above  or  below  the  freezing  point.  The  Vienna  climate 
in  not  unlike  that  of  Boston,  only  very  much  mitigated.  It 
is  dry,  clear,  with  a  respectable  cold  in  winter  and  tolerable 
heat  in  summer.  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  does  not  suit  me  very 
well.  I  mean  that  it  has  that  electrifying  irritating  effect  of 
the  Boston  atmosphere  upon  me,  which  does  not  put  me  in 
good  working  trim.  However,  I  am  determined  that  the  new 
year  shall  find  me  hard  at  work  on  Volume  III.  We  all  send 
love  to  you  and  my  father  and  all  at  home. 

Good-bye,  God  bless  you,  my  dearest  mother,  and  all  the 
blessings  of  the  season  attend  you  and  all.  Write  when  you 
can,  your  letters  always  give  me  great  pleasure.  I  shall  not 
let  so  long  an  interval  elapse  again  without  sending  at  least 
a  note. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
December,  1862. 

MY  DEAKEST  LITTLE  MARY,—  Your  last  letter  was  very 
pleasant  to  us — I  have  so  high  a  respect  for  General  Wads- 
worth.  I  hardly  know  a  man  in  the  whole  country  by  whose 
course  I  have  been  so  electrified  as  I  was  by  his.  Nothing 
can  be  nobler  or  more  heroic  than  his  career,  ever  since  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war.  Certainly  these  are  times  that  prove 
the  metal  men  are  made  of,  and  not  only  does  his  character 
but  his  intellect  shine  forth  most  brightly  since  the  great 


1862.]  ELECTIONS  IN  AMEKICA.  107 

events  in  which  he  has  been  taking  part  have  revealed  what 
was  in  him.  The  few  speeches  which  he  made  in  the  late 
canvass  seemed  to  me  of  the  highest  order  of  eloquence. 

It  is  some  good  fruit  at  least  of  these  unhappy  times 
that  we  learn  to  know  our  contemporaries.  In  piping  times 
of  peace  I  should  not  have  thought  of  James  Wadsworth 
other  than  the  agreeable  man  of  the  world,  the  liberal  man 
of  fortune,  the  thriving  landlord,  and  now  he  turns  out  a  hero 
and  a  statesman. 

We  were  inexpressibly  shocked  and  grieved  to  hear  of  the 
death  of  sweet,  dear,  and  beautiful  Mrs.  d'Hauteville.  How 
much  of  loveliness  and  grace  and  gentle,  intelligent,  virtuous 
womanhood  is  buried  in  that  grave !  What  a  loss  to  her 
family  who  adored  her,  to  so  many  friends  who  admired  her 
and  loved  her,  to  her  son  far  away  on  the  field  of  danger  !  Cer- 
tainly, we  live  in  tragic  days.  You  may  live  to  see  tranquil 
and  happy  ones ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  we  of  this  gene- 
ration will  do  so.  The  great  slave  revolution  will,  I  think, 
take  almost  the  span  of  one  generation  to  accomplish  itself 
thoroughly.  This  partial  pro-slavery  reaction  in  the  North 
has,  I  fear,  protracted  the  contest.  I  say  partial,  because  on 
taking  a  wide  view  of  the  field,  I  find  really  that  the  anti- 
slavery  party  has  made  enormous  progress  this  year.  The 
States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio  were  almost  evenly  balanced 
on  a  general  election  taken  immediately  after  the  President's 
emancipation  proclamation.  Massachusetts  gave  20,000  major- 
ity to  the  anti-slavery  party ;  and  although  the  city  of  New 
York  was  pro-slavery,  as  it  always  has  been,  yet  the  State,  the 
really  American  part  of  the  four  millions  of  the  inhabitants, 
voted  by  a  great  majority  for  Wadsworth.  Then  the  result  of 
the  Missouri  election  outweighs  all  the  pro-slavery  triumphs  in 
any  other  State.  If  I  had  been  told  five  years  ago  that  that 
great  Slave  State  would,  in  the  year  1862,  elect  five  emancipa- 
tionists out  of  the  nine  members  of  Congress,  and  that  eman- 
cipation would  have  a  strong  majority  in  each  House  of  the 
Missouri  Legislature,  I  could  not  have  believed  in  such  a 

vision This  is  one  of  the  revolutions  that  does  not  go 

backwards.      "  Die  Welt  ist  rund  und  muss  sicli  drelien"     I 


108  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  III. 

•suppose  the  din  about  McClellan's  removal  goes  on  around 
you.  I  take  little  interest  in  the  matter.  It  is  in  vain  to  try 
to  make  a  hero  of  him.  But  there  is  so  much  that  is  noble 
and  generous  and  magnanimous  in  his  nature,  so  much  dignity 
and  forbearance,  and  he  is  really  so  good  a  soldier,  that  it 
seems  a  pity  he  could  not  have  been  a  great  man  and  a  great 
commander. 

We  are  humdruinming  on  as  usual.  Yesterday  we  dined  at 
our  colleague's,  the  Dutch  Minister,  Baron  Heeckeren.  This 
is  our  only  festivity  for  the  present.  I  am  glad  the  Hoopers 
have  been  so  kind  as  to  invite  you  to  Washington  again.  It 
is  a  great  privilege  for  you,  and  I  am  very  grateful  to  them. 
Always  remember  me  most  kindly  when  you  see  them.  I  owe 
Mr.  Hooper  a  letter,  which  I  shall  immediately  answer. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate 

PAPAGEI. 


1863.]  VIENNA.  109 


CHAPTER  IV. 

VIENNA  (1863) — continued. 

Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Exclusiveness  of  Viennese  Society — The  Throne  of 
Greece — Baron  Sina — "Varius" — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill — The  early 
settlers  in  New  England  and  in  Virginia — The  Alabama — Northern  successes 
— Prof.  Goldwin  Smith  and  Dr.  Whewell  on  the  war — Growth  of  anti-slavery 
feeling  in  England — Meeting  at  Liverpool— Duke  of  Argyll's  speech — The 
Times  and  its  influence — Failings  of  the  American  body  politic — Vienna 
Salons  compared  with  English  Society — European  sympathy  with  the 
United  States — Letter  from  Mr.  Bright — English  jealousy  of  America — 
Revulsion  of  public  feeling — Rumours  of  French  intervention — Baron  Sina 
— Adelina  Patti — Exclusiveness  of  the  Austrian  aristocracy — Letter  from 
Baron  von  Bismarck  on  the  vexations  of  a  Minister — The  German  people — 
Rumours  of  European  War  —  Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Dulness  of 
Viennese  Society — The  Polish  question — Secret  societies  in  Warsaw — The 
climate  of  Vienna — Hon.  E.  Twisleton — News  of  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg 
and  battle  of  Gettysburg — General  Lee's  position — Maximilian,  Emperor  of 
Mexico — Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — The  recent  victories — Dr.  O.W.  Holmes' 
oration — The  drought  in  Vienna — Elections  in  America — Louis  Napoleon's 
scheme  of  a  Congress  of  Sovereigns — European  complications — The  lessons 
of  war — General  Grant. 

To  Lady  Win.  Eussell.  Vienna5 

January  7th,  1863. 

DEAR  LADY  WILLIAM, — I  was  on  the  point  of  writing  to 
you  on  the  very  morning  on  which  I  received  your  kind  note. 
Most  fervently  do  I  return  your  New  Year's  wishes,  and  I 
pray  that  there  may  be  healing  and  strength  for  you  in  the 
coming  year.  How  often  do  we  think  of  you  and  talk  of  you. 
How  ardently  do  I  wish  that  I  could  transport  myself  to 
Audley  Square,  and  take  my  humble  corner  among  the  troops 
of  friends  that  cluster  around  your  little  cream  bottle.  Alas  ! 
for  perfidious  Albion,  "  Felix  Austria  "  makes  me  no  amends 
for  her  loss.  I  might  live  here  for  the  rest  of  the  century,  and 
never  take  root,  while  I  am  still  bleeding  from  my  eternal 
extirpation  from  your  hostile  but  congenial  soil.  The  Aus- 
trians  are  charming  people — sing,  play,  and  dance  divinely — 
but  they  don't  like  strangers,  I  fancy.  These  may  disport 
themselves  on  the  periphery,  but — so  my  colleagues  say — rarely 
become  naturalised  in  the  interior.  You  they  adore ;  but  how 


110  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

could  they  help  that  ?  All  delight  to  talk  of  you ;  and,  indeed, 
my  only  art,  pour  me  faire  valoir,  is  to  boast  of  your  friendship. 
I  am  thinking  of  having  an  official  card  engraved  thus  : — 

Mons.  M . 

Ami  de  Milady  W.  Russell, 
No.  20  Favoriten  Strasse. 

I  hope  that  you  won't  object  to  my  putting  this  little  halo 
around  my  head.  I  can't  say  that  I  have  done  my  part,  and 
have  been  thus  far  but  the  merest  "  looker-on  in  Vienna."  My 
heart  is  always  heavy  within  me. 

Do  you  know  the  Minister  of  the  departed  Otho  the  Great 
at  this  Court — Baron  Sina,  the  Vienna  billionaire  ?  Why 
doesn't  Lord  Palmerston  make  him  King  of  Greece  ?  Best  of 
references  from  his  last  place — speaks  Greek  and  German, 
belongs  to  the  Greek  Church,  salary  no  object,  etc.,  etc.  The 
Alfred  coup  is  much  admired  here.  Whether  the  annexation 
of  Greece  to  the  Ionian  Islands  is  much  to  the  [taste  of  this 
Government,  may  'be  doubted.  Also  the  theory  that  kings 
may  be  discharged  like  butlers,  with  a  fortnight's  notice, 
which  Lord  John  has  been  so  calmly  laying  down,  doesn't 
meet  with  favour.  But  then  Austria  is  only  beginning  to  be 
a  constitutional  country.  I  wonder  if  you  know  the  house 
which  we  have  taken.  It  is  a  pleasant  one,  entre  cour  et 
jardin,  and  the  garden  is  a  very  large  one.  It  is  a  separate 
house,  too,  which  I  like  so  much  better,  having  no  prqfanum 
vulgus  under  the  same  roof. 

I  wish  I  wasn't  so  stupid.  I  am  afraid  that  you  will  deprive 
me  of  my  family  name — Varius.  Horace  couples  my  epical 
ancestor  with  Virgil  as  his  best  friends : 

"  Varius  Sinuessse  Virgiliusque 
Occurrunt ;  animse,  quales  neque  candidiores 
Terra  tulit." 

By  the  way,  Sinuessa,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  seat  of 
the  Roman  branch  of  my  family,  was  in  Campania,  and  famous 
for  its  wine.  I  hope  this  letter  will  have  better  luck  than 
those  I  wrote  from  Home,  which  seem  to  be  "  spurlos  ver- 
schwunden"  Once  more  I  pray  the  New  Year  to  bring  you 
its  choicest  blessings.  Most  sincerely  yours, 

VAKIUS  MiSEEEiMus.1 

1  "  Varius  "  was  the  name  by  which  Lady  William  Russell  as  a  translation 
Mr.  Motley  was  usually  addressed  by  of  his  name. 


1863.]  THE  "ALABAMA."  Ill 


From  Mr.  Jolin  Stuart  Mill. 

Blackheath  Park,  Kent, 
January  2Gth,  1863. 

DEAE  SIR, — You  may  imagine  better  than  I  can  tell  you, 
how  much  your  letter  interested  me.  I  am  obliged  to  you  for 
the  information  respecting  the  first  settlers  in  New  England. 
I  did  not  know  that  there  were  so  many  people  of  family 
among  them,  though  I  knew  there  were  some.  And  I  was 
quite  aware  that  the  place  which  the  refuse  went  to  was 
Virginia — all  the  popular  literature  of  the  century  following 
shows  that  colony  to  have  been  the  one  regarded  as  the 
Botany  Bay  of  that  time.  But  my  argument  did  not  turn 
upon  this,  nor  was  I  thinking  of  race  and  blood,  but  of  habits 
and  principles.  New  England,  as  I  understand  it,  was  essen- 
tially a  middle-class  colony;  the  Puritans,  in  the  higher 
classes,  who  took  part  in  its  foundation,  were  persons  whose 
sympathies  went  in  a  different  channel  from  that  of  class  or 
rank.  The  Southern  colonies,  on  the  contrary,  were  founded 
upon  aristocratic  principles,  several  of  them  by  aristocratic 
men  as  such,  and  we  know  that  the  greatest  of  them,  Virginia, 
retained  aristocratic  institutions  till  Jefferson  succeeded  in 
abolishing  them. 

Concerning  the  Alabama,  most  people  of  sense  in  this 
country,  I  believe,  are  reserving  their  opinion  until  they  hear 
what  the  Government  has  to  say  for  itself.  My  own  first 
impression  was,  that  the  Government  was  not  bound,  nor  even 
permitted,  by  international  rules  to  prevent  the  equipment 
of  such  a  vessel,  provided  it  allows  exactly  similar  liberty  to 
the  other  combatant.  But  it  is  plain  that  notion  was  wrong, 
since  the  Government  has  shown  by  issuing  an  order,  which 
arrived  too  late,  that  it  considered  itself  bound  to  stop  the 
Alabama.  What  explanation  it  can  give  of  the  delay  will  be 
shown  when  Parliament  meets ;  and  what  it  ought  to  do  now 
in  consequGnce  of  its  previous  default,  a  person  must  be 
better  acquainted  than  I  am  with  international  law  to  be  able 
to  judge.  But  I  expect  to  have  a  tolerably  decided  opinion 
on  the  subject  after  it  has  been  discussed. 


112  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

I  write  you  in  much  better  spirits  than  I  have  been  in 
since  I  saw  you.  In  the  first  place,  things  are  now  going  in  a 
more  encouraging  manner  in  the  West.  Murfreesboro  is  an 
important  as  well  as  a  glorious  achievement,  and  from  the 
general  aspect  of  things  I  feel  great  confidence  that  you  will 
take  Vicksburg  and  cut  off  Arkansas  and  Texas,  which  then, 
by  your  naval  superiority,  will  soon  be  yours.  Then  I  exult 
in  (what  from  observation  of  the  politics  of  that  State  I  was 
quite  prepared  for,  though  not  for  the  unanimity  with  which 
it  has  been  done)  the  passing  over  of  Missouri  from  slavery  to 
freedom — a  fact  which  ought  to  cover  with  shame,  if  they  were 
capable  of  it,  the  wretched  creatures  who  treated  Mr.  Lincoln's 
second  proclamation  as  waste  paper,  and  who  described  the  son 
of  John  Quincy  Adams  as  laughing  in  his  sleeve  when  he 
professed  to  care  for  the  freedom  of  the  negro.  But  I  am 
now  also  in  very  good  heart  about  the  progress  of  opinion 
here.  When  I  returned  I  already  found  things  better  than  I 
expected.  Friends  of  mine,  who  are  heartily  with  your  cause, 
who  are  much  in  society,  and  who  speak  in  the  gloomiest 
terms  of  what  the  general  feeling  was  a  twelvemonth  ago, 
already  thought  that  a  change  had  commenced ;  and  I  heard 
every  now  and  then  that  some  person  of  intellect  and  influ- 
ence, whom  I  did  not  know  before  to  be  with  you,  was  with 
you  very  decidedly. 

You  must  have  read  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  most 
thorough  pieces  of  writing  in  your  defence  which  has  yet 
appeared,  under  the  signature  "Anglo-Saxon,"  in  the  Daily 
News — that  letter  is  by  Goldwin  Smith,  and  though  it  is 
not  signed  with  his  name,  he  is  willing  (as  I  am  authorised 
to  say)  that  it  should  be  known.  Again,  Dr.  Whewell,  one 
from  whom  I  should  not  have  expected  so  much,  feels,  I 
am  told,  so  strongly  on  your  side,  that  people  complain  of 
his  being  rude  to  them  on  the  subject,  and  he  will  not 
suffer  the  Times  to  be  in  his  house.  These,  you  may  say, 
are  but  individual  cases.  But  a  decided  movement  in  your 
favour  has  begun  among  the  public,  since  it  has  been  evi- 
dent that  your  Government  is  really  in  earnest  about  getting 
rid  of  slavery.  I  have  always  said  that  it  was  ignorance, 


1863.]  ANTI-SLAVEKY  FEELIXG  IN  ENGLAND.  113 

not  ill-will,  which  made  the  majority  of  the  English  public 
go  wrong  about  this  great  matter.  Difficult  as  it  may  well 
be  for  you  to  comprehend  it,  the  English  public  were  so 
ignorant  of  all  the  antecedents  of  the  quarrel,  that  they 
really  believed  what  they  were  told,  that  slavery  was  not  the 
ground,  scarcely  even  the  pretext,  of  the  war.  But  now, 
when  the  public  acts  of  your  Government  have  shown  that  at 
last  it  aims  at  entire  slave  emancipation,  that  your  victory 
means  this,  and  your  failure  means  the  extinction  of  all 
present  hope  of  it,  many  feel  very  differently.  When  you 
entered  decidedly  into  this  course,  your  detractors  abused 
you  more  violently  for  doing  it,  than  they  had  before  for  not 
doing  it,  and  the  Times  and  Saturday  Review  began  favouring 
us  with  the  very  arguments,  almost  in  the  very  language, 
which  we  used  to  hear  from  the  West  Indian  slave-holders 
to  prove  slavery  perfectly  consistent  with  the  Bible  and 
with  Christianity.  This  was  too  much  —  it  overshot  the 
mark. 

The  anti-slavery  feeling  is  now  thoroughly  raising  itself. 
Liverpool  has  led  the  way  by  a  splendid  meeting,  of  which 
the  Times  suppressed  all  mention.  But  you  must  have  seen  a 
report  of  this  meeting ;  you  must  have  seen  how  Spence  did 
his  utmost,  and  how  he  was  met ;  and  that  the  object  was  not 
merely  a  single  demonstration,  but  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  to  organise  an  action  on  the  public  mind.  There 
are  none  like  the  Liverpool  people  for  making  an  organisation 
of  that  sort  succeed,  if  once  they  put  their  hands  to  it.  The 
day  when  I  read  this,  I  read  in  the  same  day's  newspaper  two 
speeches  by  Cabinet  Ministers :  one  by  Milner  Gibson,  as 
thoroughly  and  openly  with  you  as  was  consistent  with  the 
position  of  a  Cabinet  Minister;  the  other,  by  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  a  simple  anti-slavery  speech,  denouncing  the  pro- 
slavery  declaration  of  the  Southern  Bishops ;  but  his  delivery 
of  such  a  speech  at  that  time  and  place  had  but  one  meaning. 
I  do  not  know  if  you  have  seen  Cairnes's  lecture,  or  whether 
you  are  aware  that  it  has  been  taken  up  and  largely  circulated 
by  religious  societies,  and  is  in  its  fourth  edition.  A  new  and 
enlarged  edition  of  his  great  book  is  on  the  point  of  publica- 

VOL.   II.  I 


114  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IV. 

tion,  and  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  be  very  widely  read  and 
powerfully  influential. 

Foreigners  ought  not  to  regard  the  Times  as  representing 
the  British  nation.  Of  course  a  paper  which  is  so  largely 
read  and  bought  and  so  much  thought  of  as  the  Times  is, 
must  have  a  certain  amount  of  suitability  to  the  people 
that  buy  it.  But  the  line  it  takes  on  any  particular  ques- 
tion is  mucn  more  a  matter  of  accident  than  is  supposed. 
It  is  sometimes  better  than  the  public,  and  sometimes  worse. 
It  was  better  on  the  Competitive  Examinations  and  on  the 
Kevised  Educational  Code,  in  each  case  owing  to  the  acci- 
dental position  of  a  particular  man  who  happened  to  write  in 
it — both  which  men  I  could  name  to  you.  I  am  just  as  fully 
persuaded  as  if  I  could  name  the  man,  that  the  attitude  it 
has  long  held  respecting  slavery,  and  now  on  the  American 
question,  is  equally  owing  to  the  accidental  interests  or 
sympathies  of  some  one  person  connected  with  the  paper. 
The  Saturday  Review,  again,  is  understood  to  be  the  property 
of  the  bitterest  Tory  enemy  America  has — Beresford  Hope. 

Unfortunately  these  papers,  through  the  influence  they 
obtain  in  other  ways,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Times  very  much 
in  consequence  of  the  prevailing  notion  that  it  speaks  the 
opinions  of  all  England,  are  able  to  exercise  great  power  in 
perverting  the  opinions  of  England  whenever  the  public  is 
sufficiently  ignorant  of  facts  to  be  misled.  That  whenever 
engaged  in  a  wrong  line,  writers  like  those  of  the  Times  go 
from  bad  to  worse,  and  at  last  stick  at  nothing  in  the  way  of 
perverse  and  even  dishonest  misrepresentation,  is  but  natural 
to  party  writers  everywhere ;  natural  to  those  who  go  on  day 
after  day  working  themselves  up  to  write  strongly  in  a  matter 
to  which  they  have  committed  themselves  and  breathing  an 
atmosphere  inflamed  by  themselves;  natural,  moreover,  to 
demagogism  both  here  and  in  America,  and  natural,  above  all, 
to  anonymous  demagogism,  which,  risking  no  personal  infamy 
by  any  amount  of  tergiversation,  never  minds  to  what  lengths 
it  goes,  because  it  can  always  creep  out  in  time  and  turn 
round  at  the  very  moment  when  the  tide  turns. 

Among  the  many  lessons  which  have  been  impressed  on  me 


1863.]  FAILINGS  OF  AMERICAN  DEMOCRACY.  115 

by  wkat  is  now  going  on,  one  is  a  strong  sense  of  the  solidarite 
(to  borrow  a  word  for  which  our  language  has  no  short  equi- 
valent) of  the  whole  of  a  nation  with  every  one  of  its  members, 
for  it  is  painfully  apparent  that  your  country  and  mine 
habitually  judge  of  one  another  from  their  worst  specimens. 
You  say  that  if  England  were  like  Cairnes  and  me,  there 
would  be  no  alienation ;  and  neither  would  there  if  Americans 
were  like  you.  But  I  need  not  use  soft  words  to  yon,  who  I 
am  sure  detest  these  things  as  much  as  I  do.  The  low  tricks 
and  fulsome  mob  flattery  of  your  public  men  and  the  bullying 
tone  and  pettifogging  practice  of  your  different  Cabinets 
(Southern  men  chiefly,  I  am  aware)  towards  foreigners,  have 
deeply  disgusted  a  number  of  our  very  best  people,  and  all 
the  more  so  because  it  is  the  likeness  of  what  we  may  be 
coming  to  ourselves.  You  must  admit,  too,  that  the  present 
crisis,  while  it  has  called  forth  a  heroism  and  constancy  in 
your  people  which  cannot  be  too  much  admired,  and  to  which 
even  your  enemies  in  this  country  do  justice,  has  also  exhi- 
bited on  the  same  scale  of  magnitude  all  the  defects  of 
your  state  of  society,  the  incompetency  and  mismanagement 
arising  from  the  fatal  belief  of  your  public  that  anybody  is 
fit  for  anything  and  the  gigantic  pecuniary  corruption  which 
seems  universally  acknowledged  to  have  taken  place,  and, 
indeed,  without  it  one  cannot  conceive  how  you  can  have  got 
through  the  enormous  sums  you  have  spent. 

All  this,  and  what  seems  to  most  of  us  entire  financial 
recklessness  (though  for  myself  I  do  not  pretend  to  see  how 
you  could  have  done  anything  else  in  the  way  of  finance), 
are  telling  against  you  here,  you  can  hardly  imagine  how 
much.  But  all  this  may  be,  and  I  have  great  hopes  that  it 
will  be,  wiped  out  by  the  conduct  which  you  have  it  in 
your  power  to  adopt  as  a  nation.  If  you  persevere  until 
you  have  subdued  the  South,  or  at  all  events  all  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  if,  having  done  this,  you  set  free  the  slaves, 
with  compensation  to  loyal  owners  (and  according  to  the 
advice  of  Mr.  Paterson  in  his  admirable  speech  at  Liver- 
pool), settle  the  freed  slaves  as  free  proprietors  on  the 
unoccupied  land,  if  you  pay  honestly  the  interest  on  your 

i  2 


116  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

own  national  debt,  and  take  measures  for  redeeming  it,  in- 
cluding the  debt  without  interest  which  is  constituted  by 
your  inconvertible  paper  currency;  if  you  do  these  things, 
the  United  States  will  stand  very  far  higher  in  the  general 
opinion  of  England  than  they  have  stood  at  any  time  since 
the  war  of  independence.  If,  in  addition  to  this,  you  have 
men  among  you  of  a  calibre  to  use  the  high  spirit  which 
this  struggle  has  raised,  and  the  grave  reflections  to  which 
it  gives  rise,  as  means  of  moving  public  opinion  in  favour 
of  correcting  what  is  bad  and  of  strengthening  what  is 
weak  in  your  institutions  and  modes  of  feeling  and  thought, 
the  war  will  prove  to  have  been  a  permanent  blessing  to  your 
country  such  as  we  never  dared  hope  for,  and  a  source  of 
inestimable  improvement  in  the  prospects  of  the  human  race 
in  other  ways  besides  the  great  one  of  extinguishing  slavery. 

If  you  are  really  going  to  do  these  things  you  need  not 
mind  being  misunderstood — you  can  afford  to  wait. 

Believe  me,  dear  sir, 

Yours  very  truly, 

J.  S.  MILL. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
February,  17th,  1863. 

MY  DEAEEST  LITTLE  MARY, — I  hope  that  you  will  accept 
this  note  from  me  as  the  family  contribution  for  to-day. 

I  assure  you  when  you  know  Vienna  as  well  as  we  do,  you 
will  agree  that  to  screw  out  a  letter  once  a  week  is  a  Kunst- 
stuek  to  be  proud  of.  I  can't  very  well  write  to  you,  as  I  write 
to  the  State  Department,  about  the  movements  in  Montenegro, 
the  Polish  insurrection,  or  the  Prussian-French  treaty  of 
commerce,  although  I  daresay  these  things  would  amuse  you 
about  as  much  as  they  do  the  people  at  Washington  just  now, 
where  they  have  so  much  other  fish  to  fry.  To-day  is  the 
last  day  of  the  Carnival,  which  we  celebrate  by  remaining 
calmly  within  doors  in  the  bosom  of  our  respected  family. 
The  great  ball  at  Prince  Schwartzenberg's  took  place  last 


3863.]  VIENNA  SALONS.  117 

Sunday,  so  that  we  were  obliged  respectfully  but  firmly  to 
decline.  Soon  begins  the  season  of  "  Salons."  Now  if  there 
is  one  thing  more  distasteful  to  me  than  a  ball,  it  is  a  salon. 
Of  course  I  don't  object  to  young  people  liking  to  dance,  and 
the  few  balls  in  the  great  houses  here  are  as  magnificent 
festivals  as  could  be  got  up  anywhere,  and  Lily  had  always 
plenty  of  partners  and  danced  to  her  heart's  content,  notwith- 
standing that  nearly  all  the  nice  youths  of  the  French  and 
English  Embassies  have  been  transplanted  to  other  realms. 
But  I  think  that  no  reasonable  being  ought  to  like  a  salon. 
There  are  three  topics — the  Opera,  the  Prater,  the  Burg 
Theatre;  when  these  are  exhausted,  you  are  floored.  Con- 
versazioni where  the  one  thing  that  does  not  exist  is  con- 
versation, are  not  the  most  cheerful  of  institutions. 

The  truth  is,  that  our  hostile  friends,  the  English,  spoil  me 
for  other  society.  There  is  nothing  like  London  or  England 
in  the  social  line  on  the  Continent.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  writes 
to  me  pretty  constantly,  and  remains  a  believer  in  the  justice 
of  our  cause,  although  rather  desponding  as  to  the  issue  ;  and 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill,  who  corresponds  with  me  regularly,  and 
is  as  enthusiastic  as  I  am,  tells  me  that  the  number  of  men 
who  agree  with  him  in  wishing  us  success  is  daily  increasing. 
Among  others  he  mentioned  our  old  friend,  the  distinguished 
Dr.  Whewell,  Master  of  Trinity  (with  whom  we  stayed  three 
days  at  Cambridge  when  I  received  my  degree  there),  who  he 
says  is  positively  rude  to  those  who  talk  against  the  North. 
He  won't  allow  the  Times  to  come  into  the  house.  Well,  I 
hope  the  recent  and  remarkable  demonstrations  in  England 
will  convince  the  true  lovers  of  union  and  liberty  in  America 
where  our  true  strength  lies,  and  who  our  true  lovers  are. 

We  have  given  four  diplomatic  dinners.  The  last  was  five 
days  ago.  Sixteen  guests,  beginning  with  Count  Kechberg 
and  the  Prince  and  Princess  Callimaki  (Turkish  ambassador), 
and  ending  with  a  French  and  Belgian  attache  or  two.  The 
French  and  English  ambassadors  and  secretaries  dined  with 
us  the  week  before.  I  think  we  shall  give  no  more  at  present, 
unless  we  have  a  smaller  one,  to  which  we  shall  invite  the 
Rothschild  of  the  period,  as  we  have  had  several  good  dinners 


118  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

at  his  house.  I  am  very  glad  that  you  are  to  dine  with 
Mrs.  Amory  to  meet  General  McClellan.  We  feel  very  grate- 
ful to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Amory  and  S for  their  kindness  to 

you.  Pray  never  forget  to  give  all  our  loves  to  them.  Did 
Mrs.  Amory  ever  get  a  letter  I  wrote  her  ?  Its  date  was 
May  12th.  Pray  remember  us  most  kindly  to  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Eitchie.  I  am  so  glad  that  you  have  been  seeing  so 
much  of  them  lately.  It  is  impossible  for  you  not  to  be  fond 
of  them  when  you  know  them.  Give  my  love  also  to  Miss 
"  Pussie,"  and  to  my  Nahant  contemporary,  who  I  hope  con- 
tinues on  the  rampage  as  delightfully  as  ever.  You  will  tell 
us  of  course  what  impression  General  McClellan  makes  upon 
you.  Personally  there  seems  much  that  is  agreeable,  almost 
fascinating  about  him.  I  only  saw  him  for  a  single  moment, 
but  was  much  impressed  by  his  manner.  I  wish  it  had  been 
his  destiny  to  lead  our  armies  to  victory,  for  I  don't  see  that 
we  have  any  better  man.  But  no  one  man  will  ever  end  this 
war  except  he  be  an  abolitionist  heart  and  soul,  and  a  man  of 
military  genius  besides. 

Things   have   gone   a  million  miles  beyond   compromise. 
Pray  tell  me  what  you  learn  of  Hooker  ? 

We  all  join  in  kindest  love  to  you,  my  darling,  and  to 
your  grandmamma  and  grandpapa,  and  all  at  home. 

Your  ever  affectionate 
P.  G. 


To  Ms  Mother. 

Legation  of  the  United  States, 
March  3rd,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — As  I  have  now  made  up  my  mind 
that  our  war  is  to  be  protracted  indefinitely,  I  am  trying  to 
withdraw  my  attention  from  it,  and  to  plunge  into  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  again.  While  I  am 
occupying  myself  with  the  events  of  a  civil  war  which  lasted 
eighty  years,  and  engaged  and  exhausted  the  energies  of 
all  the  leading  powers  of  Europe,  perhaps  I  may  grow  less 
impatient  with  military  operations  extended  over  a  much 


1863.]  ENGLAND — POLAND — KUSSIA.  119 

larger  and  less  populated  area,  and  which  have  not  yet  con- 
tinued for  two  years.  Attention  in  Europe,  I  am  happy  to 
say,  is  somewhat  diverted  from  our  affairs  by  the  events  which 
are  taking  place  in  Poland. 

Meetings  are  held  day  by  day  all  over  England,  in  which 
the  strongest  sympathy  is  expressed  for  the  United  States 
Government,  and  detestation  for  the  slaveholders  and  their 
cause,  by  people  belonging  to  the  working  and  humbler 
classes,  who,  however,  make  up  the  mass  of  the  nation,  and 
whose  sentiments  no  English  Ministry  (Whig  or  Tory)  dares 
to  oppose.  As  for  Poland,  I  suppose  the  insurrection  will  be 
crushed,  although  it  will  last  for  months.  I  don't  believe  in 
any  intervention  on  the  part  of  the  Western  Powers.  There 
will  only  be  a  great  deal  of  remonstrating,  and  a  great  talk 
about  liberty  and  free  institutions  on  the  part  of  that  apostle 
of  liberty  and  civilization,  Louis  Napoleon. 

I  feel  very  much  grieved  that  our  only  well-wisher  in 
Europe,  the  Eussian  Government,  and  one  which  has  just 
carried  out  at  great  risks  the  noblest  measure  of  the  age,  the 
emancipation  of  25,000,000  slaves,  should  now  be  contending 
in  arms  with  its  own  subjects,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for  us 
to  sympathise  with  our  only  friends.  The  Government  here 
keeps  very  quiet. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  John  Bright. 

Rochdale, 
March  9th,  1863. 

MY  DEAK  ME.  MOTLEY, — I  should  have  written  to  you 
sooner,  but  I  have  been  a  week  away  from  town  and  from 
home  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  my  father-in-law  at 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  and  for  a  week  past  I  have  been  unable 
to  sit  down  to  write  owing  to  a  violent  cold,  with  cough  and 
feverishness,  which  has  made  me  incapable  of  any  business  of 
exertion. 

Your  letter  gave  me  much  pleasure,  and  I  know  not  that 


120  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

there  is  anything  in  it  on  your  great  question  that  I  do  not 
agree  with.  I  am  glad  to  find  that  you  have  observed  the- 
change  of  feeling  which  has  taken  place  in  this  country,  and 
I  hope  it  has  not  been  without  effect  in  the  United  States. 

Coming  down  from  the  War  of  Independence  and  from  the 
war  of  1815,  there  has  also  been  in  this  country  a  certain 
jealousy  of  yours.  It  has  been  felt  by  the  ruling  class  that 
your  escape  from  George  III.  and  our  aristocratic  Govern- 
ment had  been  followed  by  a  success  and  a  progress  of  which 
England  could  offer  no  example.  The  argument  could  not 
be  avoided,  if  Englishmen  west  of  the  Atlantic  can  prosper 
without  Crown,  without  Lords,  without  Church,  without  a 
great  territorial  class  with  feudal  privileges,  and  without  all 
this  or  these  can  become  great  and  happy,  how  long  will 
Englishmen  in  England  continue  to  think  these  things  neces- 
sary for  them?  Any  argument  in  favour  of  freedom  here? 
drawn  from  your  example,  was  hateful  to  the  ruling  class ; 
and  therefore  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  great  disaster 
happening  to  your  country  and  to  its  constitution  should  not 
be  regarded  as  a  great  calamity  by  certain  influential  classes 
here.  Again,  the  rich,  made  rich  by  commerce,  are  generally 
very  corrupt — the  fluctuations  of  politics  suddenly  influence 
their  fortunes,  and  they  are  more  likely  to  take  the  wrong 
side  than  the  right  one.  Thus,  in  London,  Liverpool,  and 
Manchester,  on  the  Stock  Exchange  and  the  commercial 
exchanges,  are  found  many  friends  of  the  South,  from  the 
stupid  idea  that  if  the  North  would  not  resist,  peace  would  of 
necessity  be  restored. 

But,  apart  from  these  classes,  the  mind  of  the  nation  is- 
sound,  and  universally  among  the  working  classes  there  is 
not  only  a  strong  hatred  of  slavery,  but  also  a  strong  affec- 
tion for  the  Union  and  for  the  Kepublic.  They  know  well 
how  literally  it  has  been  the  home  of  millions  of  their 
class,  and  their  feelings  are  entirely  in  its  favour.  The 
meetings  lately  held  have  not  generally  been  attended  by 
speakers  most  likely  to  draw  great  audiences,  and  yet  no 
building  has  been  large  enough  to  contain  those  who  have 
assembled.  The  effect  of  these  meetings  is  apparent  in  some 


1863.]  EEVULSION   OF  FEELING  IN  ENGLAND.  121 

of  our  newspapers,  and  on  the  tone  of  Parliament.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  there  is  not  a  whisper  about  recognition 
or  mediation  in  any  form,  and  so  far  I  see  no  sign  of  any 
attempt  to  get  up  a  discussion  on  the  part  of  any  friends  of 
the  South.  I  am  not  certain  just  now  that  the  most  cunning 
and  earnest  friends  of  the  South  are  not  of  opinion  that  it  i& 
prudent  to  be  quiet  on  another  ground  besides  that  of  a 
public  disinclination  to  their  cause  ;  they  think  the  South  has 
more  to  hope  now  from  dissensions  at  the  North,  than  from 
European  sympathy ;  and  they  believe  that  nothing  would  so 
rapidly  heal  dissensions  at  the  North  as  any  prospect  of 
recognition  or  interference  from  France  or  England.  I 
gather  this  from  what  I  heard  a  short  time  ago  from  a 
leading,  perhaps,  the  leading,  Secessionist  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

So  far  as  England  is  concerned,  every  idea  of  interference 
in  any  way  seems  to  be  quite  abandoned.  A  real  neutrality 
is  the  universally  admitted  creed  and  duty  of  this  country, 
and  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  a  widespread  dissatisfaction 
with  the  tardy  action  of  the  Government  by  which  the 
Alabama  was  allowed  to  get  out  to  sea. 

Two  days  before  Parliament  met  I  made  a  speech  to  a 
meeting  mainly  of  working  men  in  this  town.  The  object  of 
the  meeting  was  to  vote  thanks  to  the  New  York  merchants 
and  others  for  their  contributions  to  our  distressed  operatives. 
I  spoke  to  show  them  how  hostile  the  pretensions  of  the 
South,  not  only  to  negro  freedom,  but  to  all  freedom,  and, 
especially,  to  explain  to  them  the  new  theory  that  all  diffi- 
culties between  capital  and  labour  would  be  got  rid  of  by 
making  all  labour  into  capital,  that  is,  by  putting  my  work- 
men into  the  position  of  absolute  ownership  now  occupied  by 
my  horses !  The  people  here  understand  all  this.  Cheap 
newspapers  have  done  much  for  them  of  late,  and  I  have  no 
fear  of  their  going  Avrong. 

But,  seeing  no  danger  here,  what  can  be  said  for  your  own 
people  ?  The  democratic  leaders  in  some  of  the  States  seem 
depraved  and  corrupt  to  a  high  degree.  It  seems  incredible 
that  now,  after  two  years  of  war,  there  should  be  anybody  in 


122  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IV 

the  North  in  favour  of  slavery,  and  ready  rather  to  peril  and 
to  ruin  the  Union  than  to  wound  and  destroy  the  great  cause 
of  all  the  evil ;  yet  so  it  is,  and  doubtless  the  Government  is 
weakened  by  this  exhibition  of  folly  and  treason.  Military 
successes  will  cure  all  this — but  can  they  be  secured  ?  Time 
has  allowed  the  South  to  consolidate  its  military  power  and  to 
meet  your  armies  with  apparently  almost  equal  forces.  To 
me  it  seems  that  too  much  has  been  attempted,  and  that, 
therefore,  much  has  failed.  At  this  moment  much  depends 
on  Vicksburg ;  if  the  river  be  cleared  out,  then  the  conspiracy 
will  be  cut  into  two,  and  the  reputation  of  the  Administration 
will  be  raised.  If,  again,  Charleston  be  captured,  the  effect 
in  Europe  will  be  considerable,  and  it  will  cause  much  dis- 
heartenment  through  the  South  ;  but  if  neither  can  be  done, 
I  think  the  North  will  be  sick  of  its  Government,  if  not  of 
the  war,  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  raise  new  forces  and  to 
continue  the  war.  Another  year  must,  I  think,  break  down 
the  South,  but  something  must  be  done  and  shown  to  make  it 
possible  for  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Seward  to  conduct  this 
contest  through  another  campaign. 

I  cannot  believe  in  the  notions  of  the  New  York  Times  as  to 
French  intervention.  The  Mexican  mess  is  surely  enough 
for  the  appetite  of  Louis  Napoleon.  Perhaps  the  story  is  got 
up  to  give  more  unity  to  the  Northern  mind.  I  can  trace  it 
no  further  than  this.  Your  cause  is  in  your  own  hands.  I 
hope  Heaven  may  give  you  strength  and  virtue  to  win  it. 
All  mankind  look  on,  for  all  mankind  have  a  deep  interest  in 
the  conflict.  Thank  you  for  all  your  kind  words  to  myself. 
I  shall  always  be  glad  to  have  a  letter  from  you. 

Ever  yours  sincerely, 

JOHN  BEIGHT. 


1863.]  ADELINA   PATTI.  123 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
March  28th,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, —  .  ...  As  to  your  making  yourself 
out  so  very  old,  I  can't  admit  that  when  I  see,  for  example, 
Lord  Palmerston,  who  is  ever  so  many  years  older  than  you, 
in  his  eightieth  year  in  fact,  shouldering  the  whole  British 
Empire,  and  making  a  joke  of  it.  Our  climate,  too,  so  trying 
to  the  young,  I  believe  to  be  exceedingly  beneficial  to  those 
more  advanced  in  years.  Only  do  go  to  Nahant  next  summer  ; 
I  am  sure  that  the  air  and  sight  of  that  sea-beaten  promontory 
is  to  you  an  elixir  of  youth. 

I  have  little  to  say  of  our  goings  on  here.  Lent,  which  has 
succeeded  a  dancing  carnival,  has  been  pretty  well  filled  up 
every  evening  with  soirees.  Baron  Sina,  the  Minister  of  the 
defunct  kingdom  of  Greece,  an  enormously  wealthy  man,  has 
given  a  series  of  evening  parties,  in  which  there  was  always 
music  by  the  Italian  operatic  artists  now  performing  in  Vienna. 
We  had  Patti  last  week,  who  sang  delightfully.  She  has 
made  quite  a  furore  in  this  place.  We  have  only  heard  her 
at  the  theatre  once.  She  is  not  at  the  Imperial  Opera,  where 
we  have  a  box,  but  at  a  smaller  one,  and  the  price  is  alto- 
gether too  large,  as  one  is  obliged  to  subscribe  for  the  whole 
engagement.  I  hope  to  get  a  box,  however,  for  next  Saturday 
night,  when  she  is  to  play  Lucia.  And  this  will  be  sufficient 
for  us.  We  dined  with  a  large  party  three  days  ago  at  the 
same  Baron  Sina's  expressly  to  meet  Patti.  We  had  pre- 
viously dined  with  her  at  Baron  Kothschild's.  She  is  a  dear, 
little  unsophisticated  thing,  very  good,  and  very  pretty  and 
innocent.  She  considers  herself  as  an  American,  and  sang 
*  Home,  sweet  home/  after  dinner  the  other  day,  because  she 
said  she  was  sure  we  should  like  to  hear  it,  and  she  sang  it 
most  delightfully. 

Last  Wednesday  night  we  gave  a  great  squash  of  our  own. 
It  was  our  first  attempt  in  the  evening  party  line,  and  we  were 
a  little  nervous  about  it.  You  know  you  don't  send  out 
written  invitations,  and  receive  answers.  You  merely  send  a 


124  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

couple  of  days  before  a  verbal  invitation  through  a  servant, 
without  any  chance  of  a  reply.  At  a  quarter  before  ten  there 
were  not  a  dozen  people  in  our  rooms,  and  we  began  to  feel  a 
little  fidgety,  although  we  knew  the  regular  habits  of  the 
people.  But  in  ten  minutes  the  house  was  crowded.  It  was 
considered  a  most  successful  squeeze.  All  the  Liechtensteins, 
Esterhazys,  Trautsmannsdorffs,  and  the  other  great  families 
of  Vienna,  together  with  nearly  the  whole  diplomatic  corps 
were  present,  and  seemed  to  amuse  themselves  as  well  as  at 
other  parties.  Talking  the  same  talk  with  the  same  people, 
drinking  the  same  tea  and  lemonade,  and  eating  the  same 
ices  as  at  other  houses,  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not 
have  amused  themselves  as  well.  The  young  ladies  are  a 
power  in  Vienna.  At  every  "rout,"  or  evening  reception, 
they  always  have  one  of  the  rooms  to  themselves,  which  is 
called  the  "  Comtessen  Zimmer "  (no  young  lady  in  this 
society  being  supposed  to  be  capable  of  a  lower  rank  than 
Countess),  and  where  they  chatter  away  with  their  beaux, 
and  sometimes  arrange  their  quadrilles  and  waltzes  for  the 
balls  of  a  year  a-head. 

Nothing  can  be  more  charming  than  the  manners  of  the 
Austrian  aristocracy,  both  male  and  female.  It  is  perfect 
nature  combined  with  high  breeding.  A  characteristic  of  it 
is  the  absence  of  that  insolence  on  the  one  side  and  of  snob- 
bishness on  the  other  which  are  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  other 
societies.  This  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  only  passport  to 
the  upper  society  is  pedigree,  an  unquestionable  descent  on 
both  sides  of  the  house  from  nobility  of  many  generations. 
Without  this  passport  a  native  might  as  well  think  of  getting 
into  the  moon  as  getting  into  society.  Therefore  the  society 
is  very  small,  not  more  than  three  hundred  or  so,  all  very  much 
intermarried  and  related ;  everybody  knows  everybody,  so  that 
pushing  is  impossible,  and  fending  off  unnecessary.  The 
diplomatic  corps  move  among  it,  of  course,  officially.  They 
are  civil  to  us,  and  invite  us  to  their  great  parties,  and  come 
to  our  houses.  As  a  spectacle  of  men  and  women,  and  how 
they  play  their  parts,  as  Washington  Irving  used  to  say,  I 
have  no  objection  to  spending  my  evenings  thus  for  a  small 


1863.]  THE  AUSTRIAN  ARISTOCRACY.  125 

portion  of  the  year.  It  does  not  interfere  with,  my  solid  work 
during  the  daytime.  English  society  is  very  interesting, 
because  anybody  who  has  done  anything  noteworthy  may  be 
seen  in  it.  But  if  an  Austrian  should  be  Shakespeare, 
Galileo,  Nelson,  and  Kaphael  all  in  one,  he  couldn't  be 
admitted  into  good  society  in  Vienna  unless  he  had  the 
sixteen  quarterings  of  nobility  which  birth  alone  could  give 
him.  Naturally  it  is  not  likely  to  excite  one's  vanity  that 
one  goes  as  a  Minister  where  as  an  individual  he  would  find 
every  door  shut  against  him.  But  in  the  way  of  duty  it  is 
important  to  cultivate  social  relations  where  one  is  placed, 
and  in  these  times  I  am  desirous  that  the  American  Lega- 
tion should  be  in  a  line  with  other  missions.  Fortunately, 
evening  entertainments  only  cost  the  wax  candles  and  the 
lemonade. 

There  is  not  much  in  this  letter,  my  dear  mother,  to  interest 
you.  But  I  thought  it  better  to  talk  of  things  around  me 
instead  of  sending  my  disquisitions  about  American  affairs,  in 
regard  to  which  I  am  so  unfortunate  as  to  differ  from  those 
whom  you  are  in  the  habit  of  talking  with.  Best  love  to  my 
father  and  all  at  home. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Baron  von  Bismarck. 

Berlin, 
April  17th,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — Du  hast  mir  eine  grosse  Freude 
gemacht  durch  deinen  Brief  vom  9.,  und  ich  werde  Dir  sehr 
dankbar  sein,  wenn  Du  Wort  halst  to  write  oftener  and  longer. 
I  hate  politics,  aber  wie  Du  sehr  richtig  sagst,  like  the  grocer 
hating  figs,  ich  bin  nicht  desto  weniger  genothigt,  meine 
Gedanken  unablassig  mit  jenen  Figs  zu  befassen.  Auch  in 
diesem  Augenblicke,  wahrend  ich  Dir  schreibe,  habe  ich  die 
Ohren  davon  voll.  Ich  bin  genothigt  ungewohnlich,  abge- 
schmackte  Keden  aus  deni  Munde  ungewohnlich  kindischer 
und  aufgeregter  Politiker  anzuhoren,  und  habe  dadurch  einen 


126  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

Augenblick  unfreiwilliger  Musse,  die  ich  nicht  besser  beniit- 
zen  kann,  als  indem  ich  Dir  von  meinem  Wohlbefinden 
Nachricht  gebe.  Ich  habe  menials  geglaubt,  dass  ich  in 
meinen  reifen  Jahren  genothigt  werden  wiirde,  ein  so  un- 
wiirdiges  Gewerbe  wie  das  eines  parlementarischen  Ministers 
zu  betreiben.  Als  Gesandter  hatte  ich,  ob  schon  Beamter, 
doch  das  G-efiihl  ein  Gentleman  zu  sein.  Als  Minister  ist  man 
Helot.  Ich  bin  heruntergekommen  und  weiss  doch  selber 
nicht  wie. 

April  18. — So  weit  schrieb  ich  gestern,  dann  schloss  die 
Sitzung ;  5  Stunden  Kammer  bis  3  Uhr,  dann  1  Stunde  reiten, 
1  Stunde  Vertrag  bei  Sr.  Majestat,  3  Stunden  auf  einen  lang- 
weiligen  Diner,  old  important  Whigs,  dann  2  Stunden  Arbeit, 
schliesslich  ein  Souper  bei  einem  Collegen,  der  es  mir  iibel 
genommen  hatte,  wenn  ich  seinen  Fisch  verschmaht  hatte. 

Heute  friih  kaum  gefruhstuckt,  da  sass  mir  Karolyi  schon 
gegeniiber ;  ihn  losten  ohne  Unterbrechung  Danemarck, 
England,  Portugal,  Kussland,  Frankreich  ab,  dessen  Bot- 
schafter  ich  ein  Uhr  darauf  aufmerksam  machen  musste,  dass 
es  fur  mich  Zeit  sei  in  das  Haus  der  Phrasen  zu  gehn.  In 
diesem  sitze  ich  nun  wider,  hore  die  Leute  Unsinn  reden,  und 
beendige  meinen  Brief ;  die  Leute  sind  Alle  dariiber  einig, 
unsere  Vertrage  with  Belgien  gut  zu  heissen,  und  doch 
sprechen  20  Eedner,  schelten  einander  mit  der  grossten  Hef- 
tigkeit,  als  ob  jeder  den  Andern  umbringen  wollte  ;  sie  sind 
iiber  die  Motive  nicht  einig,  aus  denen  Sie  ubereinstimmen, 
darum  der  Zank  ;  echt  Deutsch,  leider,  Streit  um  des  Kaisers 
Bart,  querelle  d'Allemand  ;  Etwas  davon  habt  Ihr  Anglo- 
Saxon  Yankees  auch.  Wisst  Ihr  eigentlich  aber  genau, 
warum  Ihr  so  wiithend  Krieg  mit  einander  fiihrt  ?  Alle  wissen 
Es  gewiss  nicht ;  aber  man  schlagt  sich  con  amore  todt,  das 
Geschaft  bringt's  halt  so  mit  sich.  Eure  Gefechte  sind  blutig, 
unsere  geschwatzig ;  diese  Schwatzer  konnen  Preussen  wirklich 
nicht  regieren,  ich  muss  den  Widerstand  leisten,  sie  haben  zu 
wenig  Witz  und  zu  viel  Behagen,  durum  und  dreist.  Dumm 
in  seiner  Allgemeinheit  ist  nicht  der  richtige  Ausdruck  ;  die 
Leute  sind  einzeln  betrachtet,  zum  Theile  recht  gescheut, 
meist  unterrichtet,  regelrechte  deutsche  Universities  bildung, 


1863.]  VEXATIONS   OF  A  MINISTER.  127 

aber  von  der  Politik  iiber  die  Kirchthurm-Interessen  hinaus, 
wissen  sie  so  wenig  wie  wir  als  Studenten  davon  wussten,  ja 
noch  weniger  in  auswartiger  Politik  sind  sie  auch  einzeln 
genommen  Kinder ;  in  alien  ubrigen  Fragen  aber  werden  sie 
kindisch,  so  bald  sie  in  Corpore  zusammen  treten,  massenweit 
dumm,  einzeln  verstandig. 

When  over-reading  my  letter  just  before  I  go  to  meet  in 
my  bed  "  tired  nature's  sweet  restorer,"  I  find  that  under  the 
noisy  distractions  of  parliamentary  bullying  I  have  written 
down  a  suite  of  dull  commonplaces,  and  I  was  about  to  burn  it, 
but  considering  the  difficulty  in  this  dreary  sort  of  life  of 
finding  out  an  undisturbed  moment,  and  a  more  sensible  dis- 
position of  mind,  I  think,  like  Pontius  Pilate,  "  Quod  seripsi, 
scripsi."  These  drops  of  my  own  ink  will  show  you  at  least 
that  my  thoughts,  when  left  alone,  readily  turn  to  you.  I 
never  pass  by  old  Logier's  House,  in  the  Friedrichstrasse,  with- 
out looking  up  at  the  windows  that  used  to  be  ornamented  by 
a  pair  of  red  slippers  sustained  on  the  wall  by  the  feet  of  a 
gentleman  sitting  in  the  Yankee  way,  his  head  below  and  out 
of  sight.  I  then  gratify  my  memory  with  remembrance  of 
"  good  old  colony  times  when  we  were  roguish  chaps."1  (Poor) 
Flesh  is  travelling  with  his  daughter,  I  do  not  know  where  in 
this  moment.  My  wife  is  much  obliged  for  your  kind  remem- 
brance, and  also  the  children.  The  little  one  wrenched  his 
foot  in  tumbling  down  a  staircase,  and  my  daughter  in  bed 
with  a  sore  throat,  but  no  harm  in  that.  They  are  well  after 
all.  Glott  sei  Dank.  Nun  leb  herzlich  wohl.  Ich  kann  'so 
spat  am  Abend  eine  so  unorthographische  Sprache  wie  eng- 
lisch  nicht  langer  schreiben.  Aber  bitte  versuche  Du  es  bald 
wieder.  Deine  Hand  sieht  aus  wie  Krahenfusse,  1st  aber  sehr 
leserlich  ;  meine  auch  ? 

Dein  treuer  alter  Freund, 

V.  BISMARCK. 

1  In  1888,  Prince  Bismarck,  in  his      time  that  he  had  learnt  it  from  his 
great  speech  to  the  German  Keichsrath,      "  dear  deceased  friend,  John  Motley." 
quoted  this  song,  adding  at  the  same 


128  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

(Translation.) 
From  Baron  von  Bismarck. 

Berlin, 
April  17th,  1863. 

MY  DEAK  MOTLEY, — You  have  given  me  a  great  pleasure 
with  your  letter  of  the  9th,  and  I  shall  be  very  grateful  to  you 
if  you  keep  your  promise  to  write  oftener  and  longer.  I  hate 
politics,  but,  as  you  say  truly,  like  the  grocer  hating  figs,  I  am 
none  the  less  obliged  to  keep  my  thoughts  increasingly  occu- 
pied with  those  figs.  Even  at  this  moment  while  I  am  writing 
to  you  my  ears  are  full  of  it.  I  am  obliged  to  listen  to  parti- 
cularly tasteless  speeches  out  of  the  mouths  of  uncommonly 
childish  and  excited  politicians,  and  I  have  therefore  a  moment 
of  unwilling  leisure  which  I  cannot  use  better  than  in  giving 
you  news  of  my  welfare.  I  never  thought  that  in  my  riper 
years  I  should  be  obliged  to  carry  on  such  an  unworthy  trade 
as  that  of  a  parliamentary  Minister.  As  Envoy,  although  an 
official,  I  still  had  the  feeling  of  being  a  gentleman ;  as  (parlia- 
mentary) Minister  one  is  a  helot.  I  have  come  down  in  the 
world,  and  hardly  know  how. 

April  18th. — I  wrote  as  far  as  this  yesterday,  then  the  sitting 
came  to  an  end  ;  five  hours'  Chamber  until  three  o'clock ;  one 
hour's  report  to  His  Majesty,  three  hours  at  an  incredibly 
dull  dinner,  old  important  Whigs,  then  two  hours'  work  ; 
finally,  a  supper  with  a  colleague,  who  would  have  been  hurt 
if  I  had  slighted  his  fish.  This  morning,  I  had  hardly  break- 
fasted, before  Karolyi  was  sitting  opposite  to  me;  he  was 
followed  without  interruption  by  Denmark,  England,  Portugal, 
Russia,  France,  whose  Ambassador  I  was  obliged  to  remind 
at  one  o'clock  that  it  was  time  for  me  to  go  to  the  House  of 
phrases.  I  am  sitting  again  in  the  latter ;  hear  people  talk 
nonsense,  and  end  my  letter.  All  these  people  have  agreed  to 
approve  our  treaties  with  Belgium,  in  spite  of  which  twenty 
speakers  scold  each  other  with  the  greatest  vehemence,  as  if 
each  wished  to  make  an  end  of  the  other  ;  they  are  not  agreed 
about  the  motives  which  make  them  unanimous,  hence,  alas ! 
a  regular  German  squabble  about  the  Emperor's  beard; 


1863.]  THE  GERMAN  PEOPLE.  129 

querelle  d'Allemand.  You  Anglo-Saxon  Yankees  have  something 
of  the  same  kind  also.  Do  you  all  know  exactly  why  you  are 
waging  such  furious  war  with  each  other?  All  certainly  do 
not  know,  but  they  kill  each  other  con  amore,  that's  the  way 
the  business  comes  to  them.  Your  battles  are  bloody ;  ours 
wordy  ;  these  chatterers  really  cannot  govern  Prussia.  I  must 
bring  some  opposition  to  bear  against  them  ;  they  have  too 
little  wit  and  too  much  self-complacency — stupid  and  audacious. 
Stupid,  in  all  its  meanings,  is  not  the  right  word ;  considered 
individually,  these  people  are  sometimes  very  clever,  generally 
educated — the  regulation  German  University  culture  ;  but  of 
politics,  beyond  the  interests  of  their  own  church  tower,  they 
know  as  little  as  we  knew  as  students,  and  even  less ;  as  far 
as  external  politics  go,  they  are  also,  taken  separately,  like 
children.  In  all  other  questions  they  become  childish  as  soon 
us  they  stand  together  in  corpore.  In  the  mass  stupid, 
individually  intelligent.  [Letter  continues  in  English  until 
last  sentence.] 

Now,  an  affectionate  farewell.  I  can't  go  on  writing  such 
an  unorthographic  language  as  English  so  late  at  night,  but 
please  try  it  yourself  soon  again.  Your  hand  looks  like 
crane's  feet,  but  is  very  legible.  Is  mine  the  same  ? 

Your  faithful  old  friend, 

V.  BISMAECK. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
May  12ta,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — Since  Easter  brought  an  end  to  the 
Lenten  entertainments  which  succeeded  the  Carnival,  there 
•has  been  absolutely  nothing  going  on  in  the  social  world. 
To-morrow  there  is  a  ceremony  at  the  Chapel  of  the  Imperial 
Palace,  the  presentation  of  the  cardinal's  hat  by  the  Emperor 
to  our  colleague  here,  the  Internuncio,  who  has  just  been  car- 
dinalised  by  the  Pope.  I  wish  it  had  taken  place  yesterday, 
for  then  I  might  have  a  topic  for  my  letter,  besides  having 
got  through  the  bore  of  witnessing  it. 

VOL.  II.  K 


130  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IV. 

There  is  much  talk  about  war  in  Europe,  but  I  can  hardly 
believe  it  will  come  to  blows.    I  don't  exactly  see  how  France 
or  England  is  to  get  any  benefit  from  the  war.     The  Crimean 
war  was  different.      Without  it,  it  is  probable  that  Kussia 
would  have  got  Constantinople,  which  England,  of  course,  can 
never  stand.      France  would  like  to  fight  Prussia  and  get 
the  Ehine  provinces,  but  England  couldn't  stand  that,  nor 
Austria  either,  much  as  she  hates  Prussia.     So  it  would  seem 
difficult  to  get  up  a  war.     As  for  Austria's  going  into  such 
a  shindy,  the  idea  is  ridiculous.      To  go  to  war  to  gain  a 
province  is  conceivable ;  to  do  so  expressly  to  lose  one,  is  not 
the  disinterested  fashion  of  European  potentates.     As  for  the 
Poles,  nothing  will  satisfy  them  but  complete  independence,, 
and  in  this  object  I  don't  believe  that  France  or  England 
mean  to  aid  them.     So  there  will  be  guerrilla  fighting  all 
summer.      Blood   will  flow  in  Poland,  and  ink   in   all   the 
European  Cabinets  very  profusely,  and  the  result  will  be  that 
Kussia  will  end  by  reducing  the  Poles  to  submission.     At 
least  this  is  the  way  things  look  now;  but  "on  the  other 
hand,"  as  editor  Clapp  used  to  say,  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
drift,  and  kings  and  politicians  don't  govern  the  world,  but 
move  with  the  current,  so  that  the  war  may  really  come 
before  the  summer  is  over,  for  the  political  question  (to  use- 
the  diplomatic  jargon)  is  quite  insoluble,  as  the  diplomatic 
correspondence  has  already  proved.      There,   I   have   given 
you  politics  enough  for  this  little  letter,  and  now  I  have  only 
to  say  how  much  love  we  all  send  to  you  and  the  governor. 
I  hope  this  summer   will  bring   warmth,   and  comfort,  and 
health  to  you.     Give  my  love  to  my  little  Mary.     Our  news 
from  America  is  to  April  29th,  and  things  look  bright  on  the 
Mississippi.     I  hope  to  hear  good  accounts  from  Hooker,  but 
Virginia  seems  a  fatal  place  for  us. 

Good-bye,  my  dearest  mother, 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M, 


1863.]  POLAND.  131 

To  Lady  William  Russell. 

Vienna, 
May  31s£,  1863. 

DEAE  LADY  WILLIAM, — If  I  have  not  written  of  late,  it  is 
simply  and  purely  because  I  am  so  very  stupid.  I  don't  know 
whether  you  ever  read  a  very  favourite  author  of  mine — 
Charles  Lamb.  He  says  somewhere,  "I  have  lived  to  find 
myself  a  disreputable  character."  Now  I  don't  know  (nor 
very  much  care)  whether  I  am  disreputable  or  not,  but  I  am 
conscious  of  being  a  bore,  both  to  myself  and  others.  It  has 
been  growing  steadily  upon  me.  I  always  had  a  natural 
tendency  that  way,  and  the  development  in  the  Vienna  atmo- 
sphere has  been  rapid.  As  I  know  you  hate  bores  worse  than 
anything  else  human  (if  they  are  human),  I  have  been  disposed 
to  suppress  myself.  What  can  I  say  to  you  about  Vienna  ? 
I  don't  wish  to  say  anything  against  people  who  have  civilly 
entreated  me,  who  are  kindly  in  manner,  and  are  certainly  as 
well-dressed,  as  well-bred,  as  good-looking  as  could  be  desired. 
A  Vienna  salon,  with  its  "  Comtessen  Zimmer  "  adjoining,  full  of 
young  beauties,  with  their  worshippers  buzzing  about  them 
like  great  golden  humble-bees,  is  as  good  a  specimen  of  the 
human  tropical-conservatory  sort  of  thing  as  exists.  But  I 
must  look  at  it  all  objectively,  not  subjectively.  The  society 
is  very  small  in  number.  As  you  know,  one  soon  gets  to 
know  every  one — gets  a  radiant  smile  from  the  fair  women 
and  a  pressure  of  the  hand  from  the  brave  men ;  exchanges  a 
heartfelt  word  or  two  about  the  Prater,  or  the  last  piece  at  the 
Burg ;  groans  aloud  over  the  badness  of  the  Opera  and  the 
prevalence  of  the  dust,  und  damit  Punktum. 

Your  friend,  Prince  Paul,  is  better  of  late.  But  he  has  been 
shut  up  all  the  winter.  A  few  nights  ago  we  saw  him  at  the 
Opera.  You  are  at  the  head-quarters  of  intelligence,  so  you 
know  better  than  I  do  whether  you  are  going  to  war  about 
Poland.  I  take  it  for  granted  that  no  sharper  instrument 
than  the  pen  will  be  used  by  the  two  "  great  Powers,"  and  that 
they  will  shed  nothing  more  precious  than  ink  this  year,  which 
can  be  manufactured  very  cheap  in  ail  countries.  At  any 

K  2 


132  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

rate,  people  talk  very  pacifically  here,  except  in  the  news- 
papers. The  Due  de  Gramont  has  gone  to  Carlsbad  to  drink 
the  waters  for  six  weeks — the  first  Secretary  of  his  Embassy  is 
absent.  Lord  Bloomfield  has  gone  into  the  country.  Count 
Eechberg  has  been  ailing  for  some  weeks ;  and  meantime  we 
are  informed  this  morning  by  telegraph  that  engineer  officers 
in  London  and  Paris  have  arranged  the  plan  of  the  campaign. 
Finland  is  at  once  to  be  occupied,  a  great  battle  is  to  be 
fought,  in  which  the  Allies  are  to  be  victorious,  after  which 
St.  Petersburg  is  to  be  immediately  captured — simple  comme 
loonjour.  The  newspapers  give  you  this  telegram,  all  of  them 
exactly  as  I  state  it.  Ah  !  if  campaigning  in  the  field  were 
only  as  easy  and  bloodless  as  in  the  newspapers.  But  the 
poor  Poles  are  shedding  something  warmer  than  ink,  and  I 
can't  say  it  seems  very  fair  to  encourage  them  to  go  on,  if  you 
are  going  to  help  them  with  nothing  harder  than  fine  phrases, 
which  have  small  effect  on  Cossacks,  or  what  is  called  in  the 
jargon  of  the  day  "  moral  influence  "  (whatever  it  may  be)  is 
110  doubt  a  very  valuable  dispensation,  but  gunpowder  carries 
nearer  to  the  mark. 

There  seems  something  very  grand  in  this  occult  power, 
called  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  at  Warsaw,  a  new 
Vehmgericht.  I  am  told  that  General  Berg,  on  being  asked 
the  other  day  by  Grand  Duke  Constantine  if  he  had  made 
any  discoveries  yet  as  to  the  people  who  composed  the  Com- 
mittee, replied  in  the  affirmative.  "  Who  are  they  ?  "  said 
the  Grand  Duke.  "  Let  me  first  tell  you  who  don't  belong 
to  it,"  said  the  General.  "  I  don't  for  one.  Your  Imperial 
Highness  does  not,  I  think,  for  another ;  but  for  all  the  rest 
of  Warsaw  I  can't  say."  A  comfortable  situation  for  a  Grand 
Duke !  This  invisible  Committee  send  as  far  as  Vienna  for 
recruits,  and  men  start  off  without  a  murmur,  go  and  get 
themselves  shot,  or  come  back  again,  as  the  case  may  be,  and 
nobody  knows  who  sent  for  them  or  how.  I  have  heard  of 
several  instances  of  this  occurring  in  high  and  well-known 
families.  I  am  just  now  much  interested  in  watching  the  set- 
to  between  Crown  and  Parliament  in  Berlin.  By  the  way, 
Bismarck  Schonhausen  is  one  of  my  oldest  and  most  intimate 


1863.]  THE  CLIMATE  OF  VIENNA.  133 

friends.  We  lived  together  almost  in  the  same  rooms  for  two 
years — some  ages  ago,  when  we  were  both  juvenes  imberbes, 
and  have  renewed  our  friendship  since.  He  is  a  man  of  great 
talent  and  most  undaunted  courage.  We  have  got  a  little 
parliament  here,  which  we  call  the  Eeiclisrath,  and  are  as  proud 
as  Punch  of  it.  It  has  worked  two  years  admirably  well,  only 
the  Opposition  members,  who  make  up  two-thirds  of  it,  never 
come,  which  makes  it  easier  for  the  Administration.  My  wife 
and  daughters  join  me  in  warmest  regards  and  most  fervent 
wishes  for  your  happiness  and  restoration  to  health,  and  I 
remain 

Most  sincerely  and  devotedly  yours, 

VAKIUS  VARIORUM. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
June  IQtli,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — Now  that  Mary  is  gone,  you  will 
not  hear  regularly  through  her  once  a  week  that  we  are  all 
well  and  going  on  as  usual.  If  her  arrangements  were  carried 
out,  she  must  now  be  six  days  out  from  Boston,  and  will  be 
due  in  Liverpool  in  six  days  more,  so  that  next  week  we 
shall  be  anxiously  looking  for  the  telegram  announcing  the 
steamer's  arrival. 

We  have  awful  weather.  A  dry,  cold,  pitiless,  howling 
whirlwind  has  been  sweeping  over  Vienna  for  the  last  four 
or  five  days.  To  say  that  our  June  is  a  severe  March  would 
be  to  slander  that  blustering  month  unjustly.  I  never  knew 
such  hideous  weather.  If  it  would  rain,  I  shouldn't  mind, 
but  it  rarely  rains  here.  The  Vienna  climate  has  much 
resemblance  to  that  of  Boston,  particularly  in  the  matter  of 
wind.  The  winter  is  not  half  as  severe,  but,  en  revanche,  1 
never  knew  such  glacial  weather  in  mid  June  at  home.  Five 
such  days  as  we  have  passed  through,  with  the  prospects  of 
five  more,  are  more  savage  than  six  months  of  the  worst  east 
wind  that  ever  swept  up  Boston  Bay. 

You  see  I  am  weak-minded  enough  to  find  nothing  to  talk 


134  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

about  but  the  weather.  We  have  just  had  the  pleasure  of 
having  Mrs.  Parkman,  and  her  children,  and  Edward  Twisleton 
here  for  a  few  days.  They  were  with  us  to  dinner  or  in  the 
evening  nearly  every  day,  and  it  was  a  great  satisfaction,  so 
rarely  do  we  have  any  old  friends  in  this  out-of-the-way 
place.  She,  you  know,  is  a  woman  of  remarkable  intelligence 
and  character,  and  her  children  are  uncommonly  well-educated 
and  well-mannered.  Poor  Twisleton  we  had  not  seen  since 
his  wife's  death,  whom  we  saw  much  in  England  and  liked 
exceedingly.  He  is  saddened  much,  but  not  changed ;  it  was 
very  agreeable  to  talk  with  him  about  American  matters,  for 
he  is  as  good  an  American  as  I  am,  and  thoroughly  under- 
stands the  subject,  besides  being  a  man  of  talent  and  great 
attainments.  They  are  gone  now.  He  is  on  his  way  to 
England.  She  will  join  Mrs.  Cleveland  in  Schwalbach,  so 
that  if  Mary  and  Lily  keep  to  their  present  plan  of  going  to 
that  place  to  meet  Mary  and  bring  her  back,  while  Susie  and 
I  keep  house  at  home,  they  will  meet  again  in  a  few  weeks. 
The  Clevelands  are  expected  in  Schwalbach  July  18th. 
Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
July  7th,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHEK, —  ....  Lily  is  my  assistant  secre- 
tary of  legation,  and  does  an  immense  deal  for  me,  being 
able,  by  her  thorough  knowledge  of  languages,  to  accomplish 
more  work  than  most  young  gentlemen  of  her  age  would  be 
competent  to.  The  daughter  of  the  French  Ambassador  is 
about  Susie's  age,  and  the  two  daughters  of  the  Spanish 
Minister  are  also  her  contemporaries,  and  the  four  are  very 
intimate  and  see  each  other  perpetually.  Not  a  week  passes 
but  Susie  passes  the  day  with  the  Gramonts,  or  they  come 
and  play  in  our  garden.  The  little  D'Ayllons  have  now  gone 
to  Voslau  (where  we  were  last  year),  but  I  think  that  Susie 
will  soon  make  them  a  visit.  Meantime  they  exchange  letters 


1863.]  VICKSBUEG — GETTYSBURG.  135 

I  should  think  every  day.     What  they  find  to  put  in  them  is 

•difficult  to  imagine Everything  is  calm  just  now. 

Almost  all  Vienna  has  turned  itself  out  of  town,  and  we  are 
left  blooming  alone. 

To-day  we  all  four  go  out  to  dine  with  the  Bloomfields, 
who  have  a  pleasant  villa  for  the  summer  about  an  hour's 
drive  from  here.  It  is  very  pleasant  for  us  when  the  relations 
between  our  Government  and  that  of  England  and  France  are 
so  threatening  and  disagreeable,  that  our  personal  intercourse 
with  the  English  and  French  Ambassadors  and  their  families 
-can  be  so  agreeably  maintained.  Nothing  can  be  more 
amiable  and  genial  than  both  Lord  Bloomfield  and  the  Due 
-de  Gramont,  and  nothing  but  kind  words  and  offices  have  ever 
passed  between  us. 

Your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife.1 

Monday,  July  20tfe,  1863. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — Hurray !  I  have  just  got  the  telegram. 
Ticksburg  surrendered  on  the  glorious  4th.  "  Good,"  as 
Turner  Sargent  says.  The  details  are,  of  course,  wanting. 
We  shall  not  receive  the  papers  containing  the  Gettysburg 
battle  history  until  Thursday.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  Lee  has  been  tremendously  licked.  Meade  occu- 
pied his  head-quarters  after  the  battle,  and  has  since  been 
pursuing  him  for  sixty  miles. 

Meade  seems  to  me  to  be  a  trump,  the  man  we  have  been 
looking  for  ever  since  the  war  began.  What  a  tremendous 
responsibility  it  was  for  him  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
army  at  the  eleventh  hour,  in  the  very  face  of  the  chief  rebel 
general  and  their  best  army !  So  far  as  we  can  yet  judge,  he 
has  acted  with  immense  nerve,  rapidity,  skill;  and  I  think 
has  achieved  a  very  great  success.  To  us  who  know  the 

1  During  a  short  absence  to  meet  their  second  daughter  on  her  return  from 
America.  See  p.  140. 


136  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IV. 

country  the  telegram  says  simply,  "  Lee,  after  losing  30,000 
men  (probably  15,000),  is  trying  to  get  off  into  Virginia  as 
fast  as  he  can.  He  may  offer  battle  if  he  can't  get  across 
the  Potomac  before  Meade  catches  him.  If  not — not,  and  if 
not,  why  not  ?  "  I  have  never  felt  so  sanguine  about  our 
affairs  since  the  very  beginning.  To  be  sure  I  never  believed f 
as  you  know,  in  the  fudge  about  Baltimore  and  Washington 9 
but  one  couldn't  help  the^fidgets  when  all  the  world  in  Europe 
was  sounding  the  rebel  trumpets  in  such  a  stunning  way. 
Now,  if  Lee  is  able  to  do  us  much  damage,  all  I  can  say  is, 
that  I  shall  be  very  much  astonished.  I  suppose  he  will  get 
back  to  Winchester,  and  so  to  the  Kappahannock,  with  a  good 
deal  of  bacon  and  other  provender,  and  then  claim  a  great 
victory.  There  is  no  meaning^at  all  in  that  bit  in  the  tele- 
gram about  Euford  and  Kilpatrick's  cavalry  being  repulsed. 
Obviously  they  were  only  reconnoitring  in  force  to  find  out 
where  the  enemy  was,  and  it  could  only  have  been  an  insig- 
nificant skirmish,  such  as  happens  daily.  If  there  is  any 
truth  in  the  story  about  "  Vice-President "  Stephens  wishing 
to  come  to  Washington,  it  must  have  been  something  about 
negro  troops.  Now  that  we  must  have  taken  in  Pennsylvania 
and  Vicksburg  at  least  20,000  prisoners,  I  do  hope  the 
President  will  issue  an  unmistakable  edict  about  that 
hanging  officers  of  black  troops.  There  couldn't  be  a  better 
time. 

Devotedly  and  affectionately, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Us  Wife. 

Vienna, 
July  24th,  1863. 

DEAREST  MARY, — I  wrote  yesterday  and  said  that  I  would 
write  again  to-day,  thinking  you  would  like  to  listen  to  the 
words  of  wisdom,  after  I  had  had  time  to  digest  a  little  the 
magnificent  news  we  have  just  received.  But  after  all  I 
haven't  much  to  say.  For  the  details  are  entirely  wanting. 
The  papers  only  reach  to  8th  from  Boston,  and  7th  from  Ne  w 


1863.]  GENEKAL  LEE'S  POSITION.  137 

York,  the  later  is  of  course  by  telegraph.  We  must  wait  a 
week  to  know  exactly  what  has  happened,  and  how  large  the 
success  is.  But  isn't  it  one  of  the  most  striking  and  pictur- 
esque things  imaginable  that  Lee's  great  invading  army,  after 
being  thoroughly  thrashed  on  the  2nd  and  3rd  July,  should 
have  moved  off  in  rapid  retreat  on  the  4th  July,  and  that,  on 
the  same  famous  anniversary,  Vicksburg,  the  great  fortress 
and  stronghold  of  the  Mississippi,  should  have  surrendered  to 
the  United  States  troops  ? 

Suppose  that  Lee  at  the  present  moment  has  got  70,000 
men  at  Hagerstown,  where  we  know  that  he  has  fortified  him- 
self, and  that  is  the  very  utmost  that  one  can  even  imagine  him 
to  have ;  why  Meacle  by  this  time  must  have  at  least  150,000,, 
after  deducting  all  his  losses  in  the  battles.  And  the  militia 
are  streaming  in  by  thousands  a  day.  Government  can  send 
him  (and  I  believe  has  sent  him)  every  soldier  they  can 
dispose  of  from  Washington,  Baltimore,  Fort  Munroe,  and  the 
peninsula.  Our  resources  of  food  and  ammunition  are  bound- 
less, and  I  don't  see  how  Meade  can  help  cutting  off  the 
enemy's  supplies.  I  pore  over  the  map,  and  I  don't  see  how 
Lee  can  help  being  in  a  trap.  I  will  say  no  more,  especially 
as  about  the  time  when  you  read  this  you  will  be  getting  the 
telegram  to  the  15th,  which  may  prove  that  I  have  made  an 
ass  of  myself.  I  send  Sumner's  letter,  written  apparently 
before  hearing  of  any  of  these  great  victories.  I  also  send 
Holmes's  oration,  which  I  haven't  yet  had  time  to  read.  No 
doubt  it  is  magnificent,  and  I  prefer  to  read  it  at  leisure.  I 
have  another  copy  in  the  daily.  He  sent  me  this  one.  I  also 
send  a  paper  or  two,  which  please  preserve,  as  I  file  them.  I 
went  to  the  D'Ayllons'  yesterday  and  brought  home  Susie. 
Love  to  Mrs.  Cleveland  and  Lillie  and  my  chickens. 

Ever  lovingly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


3.38  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV. 

To  Us  Mother. 

Vienna, 
September  22nd,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — Here  in  this  capital  the  great  in- 
terest just  now  is  about  the  new  Mexican  Emperor.  The  Arch- 
duke Maximilian  is  next  brother  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
and  about  thirty  years  of  age.  He  has  been  a  kind  of  Lord 
High  Admiral,  an  office  which,  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
Imperial  navy,  may  be  supposed  to  be  not  a  very  onerous 
occupation.  He  was  Governor-General  of  Lornbardy  until 
that  kingdom  was  ceded  to  Victor  Emmanuel,  and  he  is  con- 
sidered a  somewhat  restless  and  ambitious  youth.  He  has 
literary  pretensions  too,  and  has  printed  without  publishing 
several  volumes  of  travels  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  The 
matter  is  not  yet  decided.  It  is,  I  believe,  unquestionable 
that  the  Archduke  is  most  desirous  to  go  forth  on  the  adven- 
ture. It  is  equally  certain  that  the  step  is  exceedingly 
•unpopular  in  Austria.  That  a  Prince  of  the  House  of 
Hapsburg  should  become  the  satrap  of  the  Bonaparte  dynasty, 
and  should  sit  on  an  American  throne  which  could  not  exist 
a  moment  but  for  French  bayonets  and  French  ships,  is  most 
galling  to  all  classes  of  Austrians.  The  intrigue  is  a  most 
embarrassing  one  to  the  Government.  If  the  fatal  gift  is 
refused,  Louis  Napoleon  of  course  takes  it  highly  in  dudgeon. 
If  it  is  accepted,  Austria  takes  a  kind  of  millstone  around  her 
neck  in  the  shape  of  gratitude  for  something  she  didn't  want, 
and  some  day  she  will  be  expected  to  pay  for  it  in  something 
she  had  rather  not  give.  The  deputation  of  the  so-called 
notables  is  expected  here  this  week,  and  then  the  conditions 
will  be  laid  down  on  which  Maximilian  will  consent  to  live  in 
the  bed  of  roses  of  Montezuma  and  Yturbide.  I  still  entertain 
-a  faint  hope  that  the  negotiations  may  be  protracted,  and  that 
something  may  interrupt  them  before  they  are  concluded. 
The  matter  is  a  very  serious  and  menacing  one  to  us. 

Fortunately  our  President  is  as  honest  and  upright  a  man 
-as  ever  lived,  and  there  is  no  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs 
living  to  compare  in  ability  with  Seward.  I  think  he  will 
.steer  us  clear  of  war,  and  a  foreign  war  is  the  only  thing 


18G3.]  THE  MEXICAN   QUESTION.  139 

which  can  save  the  rebellion  from  extermination.  No  paper 
published  of  late  has  given  me  such  unalloyed  pleasure 
as  the  President's  letter  to  the  Illinois  ^Republican  Com- 
mittee. The  transparent  honesty  and  unsophisticated  manli- 
ness of  his  character  breathes  through  every  line.  Happy  the 
people  who  can  have  so  homely  and  honest  a  chief,  when 
others  live  under  Louis  Napoleons  and  Jeff.  Davises  ! 

Good-bye,  my  dearest  mother.     All  send  best  love  to  father 
and  yourself  and  all  the  family,  and  I  remain 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Vienna, 
September  22nd,  1863. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES, — I  am  perfectly  aware  that  I  do  not 
deserve  to  receive  any  letters  or  anything  else  from  you. 
You  heap  coals  on  my  head,  and  all  I  can  say  is  that  I  hope 
you  have  several  chaldrons  on  hand  for  me  of  the  same  sort. 
Pour  on.  I  will  endure  with  much  gratitude  and  without 
shame.  Your  last  letter  was  not  to  me  but  to  two  young 
women  under  my  roof,  and  gave  them  infinite  delight,  as  you 
may  well  suppose,  as  well  as  to  Mary  and  myself.  I  shall, 
however,  leave  the  answering  of  that  letter  to  them.  The 
youngest  of  the  two  is  not  the  less  welcome  to  us  after  her 
long  absence  from  the  domestic  hen-coop ;  she  has  so  much  to 
say  of  you  and  yours,  and  of  all  the  kindness  you  heaped 
upon  her,  and  of  all  the  thousand  matters  belonging  to  you 
all.  Your  last  letter  to  me  bears  date  June  7th.  It  is 
much  occupied  with  Wendell's  wound  at  Fredericksburg,  and 
I  thank  you  for  assuming  so  frankly  that  nothing  could  be 
more  interesting  to  us  than  the  details  which  you  send  us.  I 
trust  sincerely  that  he  has  now  fully  recovered.  Colonel 
Holmes  has  most  nobly  won  his  spurs  and  his  advancement. 
I  am  always  fond  of  citing  and  daguerreotyping  him  as  a 
specimen  of  the  mob  of  mercenaries  and  outcasts  of  which 
the  Union  army  is  composed.  You  may  be  sure  I  do  him. 


140  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IV- 

full  justice,  and  even  if  I  allow  it  to  be  supposed  that  there 
are  within  our  ranks  five  hundred  as  good  as  he,  it  is  an  in- 
ference which  can  do  the  idiots  no  harm  who  suppose  the  slave- 
holding  rebels  to  be  all  Sidneys  and  Bayards. 

When  you  wrote  me  last,  you  said  on  general  matters  this :. 
"  In  a  few  days  we  shall  get  the  news  of  the  success  or  failure  of 
the  attacks  on  Port  Hudson  and  Yicksburg.  If  both  are  suc- 
cessful, many  will  say  that  the  whole  matter  is  about  settled." 
You  may  suppose  that  when  I  got  the  great  news  I  shook, 
hands  warmly  with  you  in  the  spirit  across  the  Atlantic.  Day 
by  day,  for  so  long  we  had  been  hoping  to  hear  the  fall  of 
Yicksburg.  At  last,  when  that  little  concentrated  telegram 
came  announcing  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg  on  the  same 
day  and  in  two  lines,  I  found  myself  alone.  Mary  and  Lily 
had  gone  to  the  baths  of  Schwalbach  to  pick  up  the  stray 
chicken  with  whom  you  are  acquainted.  There  was  nobody 
in  the  house  to  join  in  my  huzzas  but.  my  youngest  infant. 
And  my  conduct  very  much  resembled  that  of  the  excellent 
Philip  II.  when  he  heard  of  the  fall  of  Antwerp,  for  I  went 
to  Susie's  door  screeching  through  the  keyhole,  "Vicksburg 
is  ours  !  "  just  as  that  other  pere  de  famille,  more  potent,  but 
I  trust  not  more  respectable  than  I,  conveyed  the  news  to- 
his  Infanta  (vide  for  the  incident,  an  American  work  on  the 
'  Netherlands,'  I.,  p.  63,  and  the  authorities  there  cited).  It 
is  contemptible  on  my  part  to  speak  thus  frivolously  of 
events  which  stand  out  in  such  golden  letters  as  long  as 
America  has  a  history.  But  I  wanted  to  illustrate  the 
yearning  for  sympathy  which  I  felt.  You  who  were  among 
people  grim  and  self-contained  usually,  who  I  trust  were 
falling  on  each  other's  necks  in  the  public  streets  and  shout- 
ing with  tears  in  their  eyes  and  triumph  in  their  hearts,  can 
picture  my  isolation.  I  have  never  faltered  in  my  faith,  and 
in  the  darkest  hours,  when  misfortunes  seemed  thronging  most 
thickly  upon  us,  I  have  never  felt  the  want  of  anything  to 
lean  against ;  but  I  own  I  did  feel  like  shaking  hands  with  a 
few  hundred  people  when  I  heard  of  our  4th  of  July,  1863, 
work,  and  should  like  to  have  heard  and  joined  in  an  Ame- 
rican cheer  or  two.  Well,  there  is  no  need  of  my  descanting 


18G3.]  DR.  O.  W.  HOLMES'  ORATION.  141 

longer  on  this  magnificent  theme.  Some  things  in  this  world 
may  be  better  left  unsaid.  You  and  I  at  least  know  how 
•we  both  feel  about  Gettysburg,  Yicksburg,  Port  Hudson,  and 
I  shall  at  least  not  try  to  add  to  the  eloquence  of  these  three 
words,  which  are  destined  to  so  eternal  an  echo.  I  wonder 
whether  you  or  I  half-a-dozen  years  ago  were  sufficiently  up 
in  geography  to  find  all  the  three  places  on  the  map. 

And  now  let  me  thank  you  a  thousand  times  for  your 
oration.  It  would  have  been  better  for  me  to  write  on  the 
first  impulse  perhaps,  when  I  had  first  read  it,  but  on  the 
whole  I  think  not.  I  felt  no  doubt  that  I  should  like  it  better 
and  better  after  each  reading,  and  so  after  devouring  it  in  the 
very  mistily  printed  journal  which  you  sent,  and  next  day  in 
the  clearer  type  of  the  respectable  daily,  I  waited  till  the 
neat  pamphlet  which  I  knew  was  coming  should  arrive.  Well, 
I  have  read  it  carefully  several  times,  and  I  am  perfectly 
satisfied.  This  I  consider  very  high  praise,  because  I  had 
intense  expectations  both  from  the  hour  and  the  man.  If 
I  had  had  the  good  luck  to  be  among  the  hearers — for  I  know 
how  admirably  you  speak,  and  the  gift  you  have  of  holding 
your  audience  in  hand  by  the  grace  and  fervour  of  your 
elocution  as  apart  from  the  substance  of  your  speech — I 
know  how  enthusiastic  I  should  have  been.  There  would  have 
been  no  louder  applause  than  mine  at  all  the  many  telling 
and  touching  points.  The  whole  strain  of  the  address  is  one 
in  which  I  entirely  sympathise,  and  I  think  it  an  honour  to 
Boston  that  such  noble  and  eloquent  sentiments  should  have 
resounded  in  ears  into  which  so  much  venom  has  from  time  to 
time  been  instilled,  and  met  with  appreciation  and  applause. 

Unless  I  were  to  write  you  a  letter  as  long  itself  as  an 
oration,!  could  not  say  half  what  I  would  like  to  say, and  this 
is  exactly  one  of  the  unsatisfactory  attributes  of  letter- writing. 
It  is  no  substitute  for  the  loose  disjointed  talk.  I  should  like 
nothing  better  than  to  discuss  your  address  with  you  all  day 
long,  for,  like  all  effusions  of  genius,  it  is  as  rich  in  what 
it  suggests  as  in  what  it  conveys.  What  I  liked  as  well  as 
anything  was  the  hopeful,  helpful  way  in  which  you  at  start- 
ing lift  your  audience  with  you  into  the  regions  of  faiihj  and 


142  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IV, 

rebuke  the  "  languid  thinkers"  for  their  forlorn  belief,  and  the 
large  general  views  which  after  that  ascent  you  take  of  the 
whole  mighty  controversy  than  which  none  in  human  history 
is  more  important  to  mankind.  Then  I  especially  admire  the 
whole  passage  referring  to  the  Saracenic  conflict  in  Christian 
civilization.  Will  you  allow  me  to  say  that  I  have  often  and 
often  before  reading  your  oration  fallen  into  the  same  view  of 
moralising,  and  that,  when  the  news  of  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg- 
reached  me,  I  instantly  began  to  hope  it  might  prove  more  de- 
cisively our  Battle  of  Tours  than  I  fear,  magnificent  victory  as 
it  was,  it  has  proved  ?  Your  paragraphs  about  the  Moors  are 
brilliant  and  dashing  sketches. 

I  must  confess,  however,  that  you  seem  to  me  far  too< 
complimentary  about  the  slaveholders.  Perhaps  it  may  be 
my  ignorance,  but  I  have  always  been  sceptical  as  to  what 
you  call  "the  social  elegances  and  personal  graces  of  their 
best  circles."  Is  it  not  a  popular  delusion  to  extend  the- 
external  charms  of  a  few  individuals,  or  possibly  a  very  small 
number  of  families,  over  a  whole  class  ?  I  ask  in  ignorance 
merely.  It  has  been  my  lot  to  see  a  good  deal  of  European 
aristocracies,  and,  without  abating  a  jot  of  my  reverence  for 
and  belief  in  the  American  people,  I  have  never  hesitated  to 
say  that  a  conservatory  of  tropical  fruit  and  flowers  is  a  very 
brilliant,  fragrant,  and  luxurious  concern.  Whether  it  be 
worth  while  to  turn  a  few  million  freehold  farms  into  one- 
such  conservatory  is  a  question  of  political  arithmetic  which 
I  hope  will  always  be  answered  in  one  way  on  our  side  of  the 
water.  Non  equidem  invideo,  miror  magis.  Another  passage 
which  especially  delighted  me  was  your  showing  up  of 
neutrals.  Again,  you  will  pardon  me  if  I  have  often  thought 
of  Dante's  "  cattivo  coro  "  in  this  connection.  You  will  not 
object  to  this  sympathetic  coincidence,  I  hope.  But  I  must 
pause,  because,  as  I  said  before,  I  could  go  on  talking  of  the 
oration  for  an  hour.  You  can  have  no  doubt  whatever  that  it 
is  triumphantly  successful  and  worthy  to  take  its  place  among 
your  collected  works.  Do  you  wish  higher  praise  ?  How 
is  it,  I  often  ask,  that  people,  although  they  may  differ  from 
you  in  opinion  on  such  grave  matters  as  you  have  thus 


18G3.]  ELECTIONS  IN  AMERICA.  14o- 

publicly  discussed,  can  be  otherwise  than  respectful  to  your 
sentiments  ? 

I  have  not  much  to  say  of  matters  here  to  interest  you.  We 
have  had  an  intensely  hot,  historically  hot,  and  very  long  and 
very  dry  summer.  I  never  knew  before  what  a  drought  meant. 
In  Hungary  the  suffering  is  great,  and  the  people  are  killing 
the  sheep  to  feed  the  pigs  with  the  mutton.  Here  about 
Vienna  the  trees  have  been  almost  stripped  of  foliage  ever 
since  the  end  of  August.  There  is  no  glory  in  the  grass  nor 
verdure  in  anything.  In  fact  we  have  nothing  green  here  but 
the  Archduke  Maximilian,  who  firmly  believes  that  he  is  going 
forth  to  Mexico  to  establish  an  American  empire,  and  that  it 
is  his  divine  mission  to  destroy  the  dragon  of  democracy  and 
re-establish  the  true  Church,  the  Eight  Divine,  and  all  sorts- 
of  games.  Poor  young  man  ! 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  liis  Mother. 

November  17M,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, —  ....  I  shall  say  nothing  of  our 
home  affairs  save  that  I  am  overjoyed  at  the  results  of  the 
elections  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  without  being 
at  all  surprised.  As  to  Massachusetts,  of  course  I  should  as 
soon  have  thought  of  the  sun's  forgetting  to  rise  as  of  her 
joining  the  pro-slavery  Copperheads.  The  result  of  the  elec- 
tions in  Missouri  and  Maryland  has  not  yet  reached  me,  but  I 
entertain  a  strong  hope  that  the  latter  State  has  elected  an 
emancipation  legislature,  and  that  before  next  summer  the 
accursed  institution  will  be  wiped  out  of  "  my  Maryland." 

The  elections  I  consider  of  far  more  consequence  than  the 
battles;  or  rather  the  success  of  the  anti-slavery  party  and  its 
steady  increasing  strength  make  it  a  mathematical  certainty 
that,  however  the  tide  of  battle  may  ebb  and  flow  with  varying 
results,  the  progress  of  the  war  is  steadily  in  one  direction. 
The  peculiar  institution  will  be  washed  away,  and  with  it  the 
only  possible  dissolvent  of  the  Union. 


144  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  CHAP.  IV. 

We  are  in  a  great  mess  in  Europe.     The  Emperor  of  the 
French,  whom  the  littleness  of  his  contemporaries  has  con- 
verted into  a  species  of  great  man,  which  will  much  amuse 
posterity,   is    proceeding   in   his    self-appointed    capacity   of 
European  dictator.     His  last  dodge  is  to  call  a  Congress  of 
Sovereigns,  without  telling  them  what  they  are  to  do  when 
they  have   obeyed   his   summons.     All   sorts  of  tremendous 
things  are  anticipated,  for,  when  you  have  a  professional  con- 
spirator on  the  most  important  throne  in  Christendom,  there 
is  no  dark  intrigue  that  doesn't  seem  possible.      Our  poor 
people  in  Vienna  are  in  an  awful  fidget,  and  the  telegraph 
wires  between  London,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Paris  are  quivering 
hourly  with  the  distracted  messages  which  are  speeding  to 
and  fro,  and  people  go  about  telling  each  other  the  most 
insane  stones.     If  Austria  doesn't  go  to  the  Congress  out  of 
deference  to  England,  then  France,  Kussia,  Prussia,  and  Italy 
are  to  meet  together  and  make  a  new  map  of  Europe.    France 
is  to  take  the  provinces  of  the  Khine  from  Prussia,  and  give 
her  in  exchange   the  Kingdom  of  Hanover,  the  Duchy  of 
Brunswick,  and  other  little  bits  of  property  to  round  off  her 
estate.     Austria  is  to  be  deprived  of  Venice,  which  is  to  be 
given  to  Victor  Emmanuel.     Kussia  is  to  set  up  Poland  as  a 
kind  of  kingdom  in  leading-strings,  when  she  has  finished 
her  Warsaw  massacres,   and  is   to   take    possession    of   the 
Danubian   Principalities  in   exchange.      These   schemes   are 
absolutely  broached  and  believed  in.     Meantime  the  Schles- 
wig-Holstein  question,  which  has  been  whisking  its  long  tail 
about  through  the  European  system,  and  shaking  war  from  its 
horrid  hair  till  the  guns  were  ready  to  fire,  has  suddenly  taken 
a  new  turn.     Day  before  yesterday  the  King  of  Denmark,  in 
the  most  melodramatic  manner,  died  unexpectedly,  just  as 
he  was  about  to  sign  the  new  constitution,  which  made  war 
with  the  Germanic  Confederation  certain.     Then  everybody 
breathed  again.     The  new  King  would  wait,  would  turn  out 
all  the  old  Ministers,  would  repudiate  the  new  constitutioi 
would  shake  hands  with  the  German  Bund,  and  be  at  peac 
when,  lo !  just  as  the  innocent  big- wigs  were  making  sure  oi 
this  consummation  so  devoutly  wished,  comes  a  telegram  that 


1863.]  THE  LESSONS  OF  WAK.  145 

His  new  Majesty  has  sworn  to  the  new  constitution  and  kept 
in  the  old  Ministers. 

Our  weather  has  become  grey,  sullen,  and  wintry,  but  not 
cold.  There  has  hardly  been  a  frost  yet,  but  the  days  are 
short  and  fires  indispensable.  The  festivities  will  begin  before 
long.  Thus  far  I  have  been  able  to  work  steadily  and  get  on 
pretty  well. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
December  16th,  1863. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER,— I  received  your  letter  of  25th 
November  a  few  days  ago,  and  am  delighted  to  find  you 
giving  a  good  account  of  your  health.  As  you  say  that  you 
can  find  satisfaction  in  my  stupid  letters,  I  send  you  to-day 
another  little  note.  Pray  don't  think  it  affected  on  my  part 
when  I  say  that  I  have  literally  nothing  to  write  about. 

We  had  the  pleasure  of  a  brief  visit  last  week  of  a  couple 
of  charming  bridal  pairs,  Irving  Grinnell  (son  of  my  excellent 
friend,  Moses  Grinnell)  and  his  pretty,  sweet  little  wife,  who 
was,  I  believe,  a  Howland;  and  Fred  Hauteville  and  his 
bride,  a  daughter  of  Hamilton  Fish,  of  New  York — very 
elegant,  high-bred,  and  handsome. 

It  was  almost  a  painful  pleasure  to  us  to  see  Fred,  for  it 
brought  more  vividly  to  our  memories  his  beautiful  and  most 
interesting  mother,  whose  life  was  ended  so  sadly,  just  as  it 
might  have  been  gladdened  by  such  a  daughter.  Still, 
although  our  regrets  for  his  mother  were  re-awakened,  we 
were  most  happy  to  see  the  son,  and  to  find  how  manly  and 
high-spirited,  and  at  the  same  time  modest  and  agreeable,  he 
seemed  to  be.  Ah,  this  war  is  a  tremendous  school-mistress, 
but  she  does  turn  our  boys  into  men.  And,  if  all  this  cam- 
paigning has  caused  many  tears  to  flow,  it  seems  to  me  I  had 
rather  my  son  had  died  in  the  field  fighting  for  the  loftiest 
and  purest  cause,  than  that  he  had  remained  in  the  sloth  and 

VOL.   II.  L 


146  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  frivolity  which  form  the  life  of  too  many  who  stay  at  home. 
I  am  determined  to  say  nothing  of  political  matters  save  to 
repeat  my  conviction,  firm  as  the  everlasting  hills,  that  the 
only  possible  issue  of  the  war  is  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Union  and  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery,  and  such  a  glorious 
consummation  is  as  sure  as  that  the  sun  will  rise  to-morrow. 
We  are  all  well,  and  send  much  love  to  the  governor  and 
yourself  and  all  the  family.  The  little  Schleswig-Holstein 
fuss  is  in  a  fair  way  of  being  settled. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Mother. 

December  29t7i,  1863. 

MY  DEAEEST  MOTHEK, — We  wish  you  all  a  merry  Christmas 
and  a  happy  New  Year. 

We  are  very  well  satisfied  with  recent  American  news.  In 
a  military  point  of  view,  thank  Heaven  !  the  "  coming  man," 
for  whom  we  have  so  long  been  waiting,  seems  really  to  have 
come.  So  far  as  I  can  understand ^the  subject,  Ulysses  Grant 
is  at  least  equal  to  any  general  now  living  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  and  by  far  the  first  that  our  war  has  produced  on  either 
side.  I  expect  that  when  the  Yicksburg  and  Tennessee  cam- 
paigns come  to  be  written,  many  years  hence,  it  will  appear 
that  they  are  masterpieces  of  military  art.  A  correspondent 
of  a  widely  circulated  German  newspaper  (the  Augsburg 
Gazette),  very  far  from  friendly  to  America,  writing  from  the 
seat  of  war  in  Tennessee,  speaks  of  the  battle  of  Chattanooga 
;asan  action,  which,  both  for  scientific  combination  and  bravery 
in  execution,  is  equal  to  any  battle  of  modern  times  from  the 
days  of  Frederick  the  Great  downwards.  I  am  also  much 
pleased  with  the  Message,  and  my  respect  for  the  character 
and  ability  of  the  President  increases  every  day.  It  was  an 
immense  good  fortune  for  us  in  this  emergency  to  have  a  man 
in  his  responsible  place  whose  integrity  has  never  been 
impeached,  so  far  as  I  know,  by  friend  or  foe.  The  ferment  in 
Europe  does  not  subside,  and  I  cannot  understand  how  the 


1863.]  DANGER  OF  WAR  IN  EUROPE.  147 

German-Danish  quarrel  can  be  quietly  settled.  I  rather 
expect  to  see  a  popular  outbreak  in  Copenhagen,  to  be  sup- 
pressed, perhaps,  by  foreign  powers ;  but  that  Denmark  will 
be  dismembered  seems  to  me  very  probable.  However,  I  have 
no  intention  of  prophesying  as  to  events  to  be  expected 
during  the  coming  year. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


]  48  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS,  [CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 
VIENNA  (1864) — continued. 

Festivities  at  Vienna — The  war  drawing  to  a  close — The  Danish  war — Letter 
to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll — Colonel  Robert  Shaw — A  Court  dinner — The 
Empress — Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — The  Schleswig-Holstein  affair — 
Emperor  Maximilian  —  The  Honourable  Julian  Fane  —  Letter  from  Mr. 
E.  Everett — The  East  Tennessee  Fund — Change  of  feeling  in  America — 
Letter  from  Baron  von  Bismarck — Death  of  Mr.  Motley's  father — Death  of 
Mr.  Julius  Lothrop — Grant's  Richmond  campaign — The  Alabama  and  Kear- 
sarge — Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — At  work  on  the  '  History ' — Death  of 
General  Wads  worth — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell — Editorship  of  the  North- 
American  Review — An  appeal  for  contributions  —  Political  prospect  in 
America — The  sinking  of  the  Alabama — The  Vienna  conferences — Lincoln 
and  Grant — The  repulse  at  Petersburg — A  dinner  with  Bismarck — King  of 
Prussia's  visit  to  Vienna — Candidates  for  the  Presidency — Excluded  from 
the  Vienna  Archives — The  "  Women's  League  " — First  principles  of  com- 
merce— The  ebb  and  flow  of  gold — Paper  currency — National  economy — 
Peace  conferences  at  Vienna — McClellan's  candidature — Count  Spiegel — 
Condition  of  the  Austrian  peasantry  —  Tour  to  Gmunden  and  Ischl  — 
Salzburg — Venice — Breakfast  with  Prince  Augustus  of  Saxe-Coburg — The 
Comte  de  Paris — His  sympathy  with  the  North — Work  on  the  *  History ' — 
Intention  of  writing  History  of  Thirty  Years'  War— The  Prater— The  Opera 
—  Lincoln  President  the  second  time — Belief  in  democracy — Winter  in 
Vienna — Letter  from  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell — The  North  American  Review  again; 
— Prospects  of  the  end  of  the  war. 

To  Ms  Mother. 

January  27th,  1864. 

MY  DEAEEST  MOTHEE, — Since  I  last  wrote  I  have  had  the- 
pleasure  of  receiving  your  kind  letter  of  28th  December. 
Although  I  regret  to  find  that  you  are  still  so  much  a  sufferer 
from  neuralgia  and  rheumatism,  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  that 
your  eyesight  is  so  much  improved,  and  that  you  are  able  to 
read  as  much  as  you  like. 

Fortunately  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  see  all  the  new 
books,  whereas  we  are  obliged  very  much  to  do  without  them, 
Vienna  is  probably  the  city  in  the  world  where  the  least 
reading  is  done  in  proportion  to  the  population,  and  the  most 
dancing.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  in  the  upper  society  there  are 


1864.]  THE  WAR  DRAWING  TO  A  CLOSE.  149 

but  very  few  balls  this  Carnival.  Lily  wrote  you  an  account 
of  ours,  and  on  the  following  week  there  was  a  ball  at  the 
French  Ambassador's,  the  Due  de  Gramont. 

The  society  is  so  small  that  this  seems  to  suffice.  I  shall 
add  but  little  concerning  our  festivity.  It  was  a  tremendous 
undertaking  in  the  prospect,  and  Mary  excited  my  special 
wonder  by  the  energy  and  completeness  with  which  she 
superintended  the  arrangements.  Our  head-servant,  being  an 
incapable  donkey,  was  an  obstruction  rather  than  a  help,  and 

the  only  real  lieutenant  that  she  had  was ,  who  was  all 

energy  and  intelligence.  Lily,  who  thoroughly  understands 
the  society  of  Vienna,  was,  of  course,  all  in  all  in  regard  to 
the  actual  business  of  the  ball,  and  we  had  an  excellent  and 
amiable  ally  in  young  Prince  Metternich,  who  was  the 
managing  director.  Well,  at  least  we  are  rewarded  for  the 
trouble  and  expense  by  success,  for  I  cannot  doubt,  so  much 
we  have  heard  about  it,  that  it  gave  very  great  satisfaction  to 
the  said  upper  three  hundred,  that  noble  Spartan  band  who  so 
heroically  defend  the  sacred  precincts  of  fashion  against  the 
million  outsiders  who  in  vain  assail  it.  I  have  said  more 
about  this  trifling  matter  than  you  may  think  interesting. 
But,  to  say  the  truth,  I  preferred  that  exactly  in  this  state  of 
our  affairs  the  house  of  the  American  Minister  should  be  one 
whose  doors  were  occasionally  open,  rather  than  to  be  known 
as  a  trans- Atlantic  family  who  went  everywhere  but  who  were 
never  known  to  invite  a  soul  within  their  walls.  For  me 
personally  it  is  harder  work  than  writing  a  dozen  despatches. 

There  is,  I  think,  but  little  of  stirring  intelligence  to  be 
expected  from  the  United  States  before  March  or  April,  but  I 
have  settled  down  into  a  comfortable  faith  that  this  current 
year  1864  is  to  be  the  last  of  military  operations  on  a  large 
scale.  To  judge  from  the  history  of  the  past  two  and  a  half 
years,  it  will  not  take  another  twelvemonth  for  our  forces  to 
get  possession  of  what  remains  of  rebel  cities  and  territory,  or, 
at  any  rate,  to  vanquish  the  armed  resistance  to  such  an 
extent,  that  what  remains  of  the  insurrection  will  be  reduced 
to  narrow  and  manageable  compass.  In  another  year  or  two, 
I  -am  now  convinced,  there  will  be  neither  slaveholders  nor 


150  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V, 

rebels — which  terms  are  synonymous.  The  future  will  be- 
more  really  prosperous  than  the  past  has  ever  been,  for  the 
volcano  above  in  which  we  have  been  living  in  a  fool's  paradise 
of  forty  years,  dancing  and  singing,  and  imagining  ourselves 
going  ahead,  will  have  done  its  worst,  and  spent  itself,  I  trust 
for  ever.  In  Europe  affairs  are  looking  very  squally.  The 
war  has  almost  begun,  and  the  first  cannon-shot  I  suppose  will 
be  heard  on  the  Eider  before  the  middle  of  February.  At 
least,  from  the  best  information  I  can  gather  from  German,. 
Danish,  and  other  sources,  the  conflict  has  become  inevitable. 
If  diplomacy  does  succeed  in  patching  up  matters  in  the  next 
fortnight,  it  will  show  better  skill  in  joiner's  work  than  it  has 
manifested  of  late  years  in  any  other  occasion.  We  have,  at 
least  the  advantage  of  being  comparatively  secure  from  inter- 
ference. 

January  3~Lst. — I  shall  bring  the  '  United  Netherlands '  to  an 
end  by  the  end  of  this  year.  But  how  I  shall  feel  when  I 
come  out  of  that  mine  where  I  have  been  delving  so  many 
years  I  can  scarcely  imagine.  I  shall  feel  like  a  man  who 
has  worked  out  his  twenty  years  in  the  penitentiary,  and  who 
would  on  the  whole  prefer  to  remain.  Good-bye,  my  dearest 
mother,  and,  with  my  most  earnest  prayers  for  your  health  and 
happiness, 

I  am  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  the  Duchess  of  Argyll. 

Vienna, 
February  7th,  1864. 

DEAK  DUCHESS  OF  AEGYLL, — We  get  on  very  well  in* 
Vienna.  We  have  an  extremely  pleasant  house  with  a  large 
garden.  Many  of  our  colleagues  are  very  kind  and  agree- 
able ;  your  ambassador  most  especially  so — high-minded,, 
honourable,  sympathetic,  good-tempered,  amiable.  Every- 
body respects  and  loves  him  for  his  fine  qualities  of  mind  and 
character.  Lady  Bloomfield  is  very  charming  and  accom- 
plished, and  has  but  one  fault  in  the  world.  She  has  been  away 
from  us  three  or  four  months,  and  we  all  miss  her  very  much. 


1864.]  COLONEL  EGBERT  SHAW.  151 

I  have  purposely  avoided  speaking  of  the  one  topic  of 
which  my  mind  is  always  full,  because  when  I  once  begin  I  can 
never  stop,  and  I  become  an  intolerable  bore. 

I  am  glad  you  spoke  of  Colonel  Shaw.  His  father  and 
mother  are  intimate  friends  of  ours,  and  I  have  had  a  touching 
letter  from  Mr.  Shaw  since  his  son's  death.  I  knew  the  son, 
too,  a  beautiful,  fair-haired  youth,  with  everything  surrounding 
him  to  make  life  easy  and  gay.  When  I  was  at  home  in  1861 
I  saw  him  in  camp.  He  was  in  the  same  tent  with  one  of  my 
own  nephews,  both  being  lieutenants  in  what  has  since  become 
a  very  famous  regiment — the  Massachusetts  2nd.  I  had  the 
honour  of  presenting  their  colours  to  that  regiment,  and  saw 
them  march  out  of  Boston  1040  strong.  Since  that  day  they 
have  been  in  countless  actions,  some  of  the  bloodiest  of  the 
war.  A  large  proportion  of  its  officers,  all  of  them  young  men 
of  well-known  Boston  families,  have  been  killed  or  severely 
wounded;  and  in  the  last  papers  received  I  read  that  the 
regiment,  reduced  to  about  two  hundred,  has  returned  on  a 
few  weeks'  furlough  and  to  recruit  its  numbers,  having  re- 
enlisted — like  most  of  the  other  regiments  whose  term  expires 
this  year — for  three  years  longer,  or  for  the  duration  of  the 
war.  I  believe  that  they  would  serve  for  twenty  years  rather 
than  that  our  glorious  Kepublic  should  be  destroyed.  But  be 
assured  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  firm  as 
the  mountains. 

Young  Kobert  Shaw  is  a  noble  type  of  the  young  American. 
Did  you  see  the  poem  to  his  memory  in  the  January  number 
of  the  Atlantic  ?  It  is  called  '  Memorise  positum,'  and  is, 
I  think,  very  beautiful.  The  last  verse  is  especially  touching. 
It  is  by  Eussell  Lowell,  one  of  our  first  poets,  as  you  know. 
The  allusion  is  to  his  two  nephews  who  were  killed  in  Virginia. 
A  third  nephew  (he  has  no  sons),  Colonel  Lowell,  of  the 
2nd  Massachusetts  Cavalry,  is  in  active  service  in  Meade's 
army.  He  lately  married  a  sister  of  Colonel  Shaw,  and  she  is 
with  him  now.  Shaw  fought  all  through  the  campaigns  of 
Virginia,  in  the  Massachusetts  2nd,  until  he  took  the  command 
of  the  Massachusetts  54th  (colonel).  His  was  a  beautiful  life 
and  a  beautiful  death. 


152  .      MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V. 

I  shall  say  no  more.  My  wife  and  daughters  join  me  in 
sincerest  remembrances  and  best  wishes  for  the  Duke  and 
yourself  and  all  your  household. 

I  beg  to  remain, 

dear  Duchess  of  Argyll, 

Most  truly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 

I  wish  you  would  whisper  to  the  Duke  that  he  owes  me  a 
letter,  and  that  if  he  should  ever  find  time  to  write  I  will 
write  a  short  letter  in  return. 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
March  IGth,  1864. 

MY  DEAKEST  MOTHEE, — I  hardly  know  what  to  say  likely 
to  amuse  you.     Vienna  has  been  dull  this  winter  to  an  iinex- 
ampled  extent,  and  the  spring  is  still  duller — parties  and 
dinners  being  reduced   to   a   minimum.     Week   before   last 
Mary  and  I  had  the  honour  of  being  bidden  to  dine  with  the 
Emperor  and  Empress.     Perhaps  it  may  amuse  you  to  hear 
how  a  dinner  at  Court  is  managed,  although  it  is  much  like 
any  other  dinner-party.      The  gentlemen  go  in  uniform  of 
course  (military  or  diplomatic),  the  ladies  in  full  dress,  but 
fortunately  not  in  trains.     We  were  received  in  one  of  the 
apartments  of  the  palace  called  the  Alexander  Kooms,  because 
once  inhabited  by  the  Czar  Alexander  I.     There  were  three 
other  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  present,  the  Portuguese 
Minister  and  his  wife,  and  the  Minister  of  one  of  the  lesser 
German  Courts.     There  were  some  guests  from  the  Vienna 
aristocracy,  besides   some  of  the   high  palace  functionaries, 
ladies   and  gentlemen,  in  attendance.     After  the   company, 
about  twenty-eight  in  all,  had  been  a  little  while  assembled, 
the  Emperor  and  Empress  came  in  together,  and,  after  ex- 
changing a  few  words  with  one  or  two  of  the  guests,  proceeded 
to  the   dining-room,  followed  by  the   rest  of  the  company. 
Each  of  us  before  reaching  the  reception-room  had  received  a 


-1861.]  A  COURT  DINNER.  153 

card  from  an  usher  signifying  exactly  where  we  were  to  place 
ourselves  at  table.  Thus  on  my  card  I  was  told  to  sit  on  the 
left  of  Viscountess  Santa  Quiteria,  the  wife  of  my  Portuguese 
•colleague  as  aforesaid.  Mary  was  directed  to  be  seated  on 
the  right  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany.  So  everybody  was 
enabled  to  march  to  their  places  without  any  difficulty  or 
embarrassment.  The  Emperor  and  Empress  sat  side  by  side 
in  the  middle  of  a  long  table.  On  his  left  was  the  Portu- 
guese lady ;  on  the  Empress's  right  was  the  Grand,  Duke  of 
Tuscany. 

During  dinner,  the  Emperor  conversed  very  agreeably  with 
the  lady  next  him  and  with  me  on  topics  such  as  generally 
come  up  at  a  dinner  table,  and  he   asked  many  questions 
about  manners  and  customs  in  America.    He  has  rather  a  grave 
face,  but  his  smile  is  frank  and  pleasant,  and  his  manner  has 
much  dignity ;  his  figure  is  uncommonly  good,  tall,  slender, 
and  stately.     Mary  had  much  conversation  about  Florence, 
the  Pitti  Palace  and  the  Gardens  of  Boboli,  with  the  deposed 
potentate   her  neighbour.     The  lady  on  my  left,  Countess 
Xonigsegg,  the  principal  mistress  of  the  robes,  was  very  agree- 
able and   one   of  the  handsomest  persons   in   Vienna;   and 
altogether  the  dinner  passed  off  very  pleasantly.     After  we 
had  returned  to  the  drawing-room  the  circle  was  formed,  and 
the  Emperor  and  Empress  as  usual  went  round  separately, 
entering   into  conversation  with  each  of  their  guests.     He 
talked  a  good  while  with  me,  and  asked  many  questions  about 
the  war  with  much  interest  and  earnestness,  and  expressed 
his  admiration  at   the   resources   of  a  country  which  could 
sustain  for  so  long  a  time  so  vast  and  energetic  a  conflict.     I 
replied  that  we  had  been  very  economical  for  a  century,  and 
we  were  now  the  better  able  to  pay  for  a  war  which  had  been 
forced  upon  us,  and  which  if  we  had  declined  we  must  have 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation.     I  ventured  to  predict,  however, 
that  this  current  year  would  be  the  last  of  the  war  on  any 
considerable  scale. 

The  Empress,  as  I  have  often  told  you  before,  is  a  wonder 
of  beauty — tall,  beautifully  formed,  with  a  profusion  of  bright 
brown  hair,  a  low  Greek  forehead,  gentle  eyes,  very  red  lips, 


154  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  Y. 

a  sweet  smile,  a  low  musical  voice,  and  a  manner  partly 
timid,  partly  gracious.  She  certainly  deserves  a  better  Court 
poet  than  I  am  ever  likely  to  become.  Both  the  Emperor 
and  Empress  asked  very  kindly  about  the  health  of  the- 
girls,  who,  as  they  knew,  had  been  seriously  ill.  The  party 
lasted  about  two  hours.  We  arrived  at  the  Palace  a  little 
before  half-past  five  and  were  at  home  again  soon  after  half- 
past  seven.  I  have  written  this  thinking  it  might  interest 
you  more  than  if  I  went  into  the  regions  of  high  politics. 
Next  Sunday  (Easter  Sunday)  the  Archduke  Maximilian 
accepts  the  imperial  crown  of  Mexico,  and  within  two  or  three 
months  he  will  have  arrived  in  that  country.  Then  our  diffi- 
culties in  this  most  unfortunate  matter  will  begin.  Thus  far 
the  Austrian  Government  on  the  one  side,  and  the  United  States 
Government  on  the  other,  have  agreed  to  wash  their  hands  of 
it  entirely.  But  when  the  new  "  Emperor "  shall  notify  his 
succession  to  the  Washington  Government,  we  shall  perhaps 
be  put  into  an  embarrassing  position. 

I  remain  ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Lady  William  Russell. 

Vienna, 
March  17th,  1864. 

DEAK  LADY  WILLIAM, — A  thousand  thanks  for  your  letter, 
which  gave  us  inexpressible  delight,  not  alone  for  its  wit  and 
its  wisdom,  which  would  have  made  it  charming  to  read,  even 
if  it  had  been  addressed  to  any  one  else,  but  because  it  brings 
a  fresh  assurance  that  we  are  not  quite  forgotten  yet  by  one  of 
whom  we  think  and  speak  every  day.  I  should  write  oftener, 
dear  Lady  William,  but  for  two  reasons.  One,  that  I  am 
grown  such  a  dull  and  dismal  eremite,  although  always  in  a 
crowd,  that  I  consider  it  Polizei  widrig  to  expose  any  one  to 
the  contagion  of  such  complaints  ;  secondly,  because  yours  is 
an  answer  to  my  last,  after  the  interval  of  a  year,  and  I  never 
venture  to  write  a  second  letter  till  the  first  one  has  been  com- 
pleted by  its  answer.  It  is  an  old  superstition  of  mine,  that 


1864.]  LONDON  AND  VIENNA.  155 

a  correspondence  can't  go  on  one  leg.  I  always  think  of 
letters  in  pairs,  like  scissors,  inexpressibles,  lovers,  what  you 
will.  This  is  a  serious  statement,  not  an  excuse,  for  I  have 
often  wished  to  write,  and  have  been  repelled  by  the  thought. 
It  was  most  charitable  of  you  therefore  to  send  me  one  of  your 
green  leaves  fluttering  out  of  the  bowers  of  Mayfair  as  the  first 
welcome  harbinger  of  spring,  after  this  very  fierce  winter  : 

"  Frigora  mitescunt  zephyris :  ver  preterit  sestas." 

How  well  I  remember  that  sequestered  village  of  Mayfair, 
and  the  charming  simplicity  of  its  unsophisticated  popula- 
tion !  "  Auch  ich  war  in  Arcadien  geboren."  I  too  once  hired 
a  house  in  Hertford  Street,  as  you  will  observe.  Would  that 
I  could  walk  out  of  it  to  No.  2,  Audley  Square,  as  it  was 
once  my  privilege  to  do !  I  infer  from  what  you  say,  and 
from  what  I  hear  others  say,  that  you  are  on  the  whole 
better  in  regard  to  the  consequences  of  that  horrible  accident 
in  Kome,  and  I  rejoice  in  the  thought  that  you  are  enjoying 
so  much,  notwithstanding,  for  a  most  brilliant  planetary 
system  is  plainly  revolving  around  you,  as  the  centre  of  light 
and  warmth.  I  am  so  glad  you  see  so  much  of  the  Hughes's. 
They  are  among  our  eternal  regrets.  I  echo  everything  you 
say  about  both,  and  am  alternately  jealous  of  them,  that  they 
can  see  you  every  day,  and  almost  envious  of  you  for  having  so 
much  of  them.  So  you  see  that  I  am  full  of  evil  passions. 
Nevertheless  I  shall  ever  love  perfidious  Albion  for  the  sake 
of  such  friends  as  these,  notwithstanding  her  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanours  towards  a  certain  Eepublic  in  difficulties 
which  shall  be  nameless.  What  can  I  say  to  you  that  can 
possibly  amuse  you  from  this  place  ? 

Perhaps  I  had  better  go  into  the  haute  potitique.  We  live 
of  course  in  an  atmosphere  of  Sclileswig-Holsteinismus,  which 
is  as  good  as  a  London  fog  in  this  dry  climate.  I  don't  attri- 
bute so  much  influence  as  you  do  to  the  "early  associations 
with  Hamlet  on  the  British  mind."  Kather  do  I  think  it  an 
ancient  instinct  of  the  British  mind  to  prefer  a  small  power 
in  that  important  little  peninsula,  that  it  may  be  perpetually 
under  the  British  thumb.  For  myself,  I  take  great  comfort 


156  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V. 

in  being  comparatively  indifferent  to  the  results  of  the 
contest.  As  to  its  being  decided  on  the  merits,  that  is  of 
course  out  of  the  question.  A  war  about  Poland  was  saved, 
after  a  most  heroic  effusion  of  ink  in  all  the  chanceries  of 
Europe,  by  knocking  Poland  on  the  head.  And  a  war  about 
Denmark  may  be  saved  by  knocking  Denmark  on  the  head. 
As  to  the  merits  of  Schleswig-Holstein,  are  there  any  ?  Con- 
sidered as  private  property,  those  eligible  little  estates  may  be 
proved  to  belong  to  almost  anybody.  Early  in  the  9th 
century  the  sandbanks  of  the  Elbe  were  incorporated  in  the 
Germanic  Empires,  while  those  beyond  the  Eider  were  under 
the  suzerainty  of  Denmark.  In  the  first  half  of  the  llth 
century  all  Schleswig  was  Danish,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the 
13th,  Holstein,  including  Lubeck  and  Dittmarsch,  was  incor- 
porated in  the  Kingdom  of  Denmark.  Then  there  were 
revolutions,  shindies  of  all  kinds,  republics,  que  sais-je  ?  Then 
came  1460,  the  election  of  King  Christian  I.  of  Denmark  as 
Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein.  There  is  much  virtue  in  the 
hyphen.  The  patent  of  that  excellent  monarch  is  extant, 
written  in  choice  platt  Deutsch,  by  which  he  declares  the 
hyphen  eternal.  The  provinces  shall  remain  eternally  to- 
gether, undivided,  says  the  patent.  What  a  pity  the  King  too 
couldn't  have  been  eternal!  The  Ion  Eoi  d'Yvetot  himself 
couldn't  have  settled  matters  in  his  domain  more  comfortably 
for  all  future  times. 

But  I  forbear.  Who  can  help  approving  the  pluck  with 
which  little  Denmark  stands  up  to  her  two  gigantic  antago- 
nists ?  But  I  am  afraid  there  has  been  too  much  judicious 
bottle-holding.  Anyhow,  it  is  amusing  to  watch  the  chaos 
in  the  Councils  at  Frankfort.  The  Diet  is  at  its  last  gasp. 
Everybody  has  a  different  proposition  or  "  combination "  to 
make  every  day ;  everybody  is  defeated,  and  yet  there  are 
no  conquerors.  The  Bund  means  mischief,  and  wriggles 
about,  full  of  the  most  insane  excitement,  to  the  thirty- 
fourth  joint  of  its  tail,  but  can  do  no  harm  to  any  one. 
Decidedly  the  poor  old  Bund  is  moribund.  WThat  do  you 
think  of  your  young  friend  Maximilian,  Montezuma  I.  ?  I 
was  never  a  great  admirer  of  the  much  admired  sagacity  of 


1861.]  MAXIMILIAN,   EMPEROK   OF    MEXICO.  157 

Louis  Napoleon.  But  I  have  been  forced  to  give  in  at  last. 
The  way  in  which  he  has  bamboozled  that  poor  young  man 
is  one  of  the  neatest  pieces  of  escamotage  ever  performed.  If 
he  does  succeed  in  getting  the  Archduke  in,  and  his  own 
troops  out,  and  the  costs  of  his  expedition  paid,  certainly  it 
will  be  a  Kunststuck.  The  Priest-party,  who  called  in  the 
French,  are  now  most  furiously  denouncing  them,  and  swear 
that  they  have  been  more  cruelly  despoiled  by  them  than  by 
Juarez  and  his  friends.  So  poor  Maximilian  will  put  his  foot 
in  a  hornets'  nest  as  soon  as  he  gets  there.  Such  a  swarm 
of  black  venomous  insects  haven't  been  seen  since  the  good 
old  days  of  the  Inquisition.  Now  irritare  crabrones  is  a 
good  rule,  and  so  Max  is  to  have  the  Pope's  blessing  before 
he  goes.  But  if  the  priests  are  against  him,  and  the  Liberals 
are  for  a  Kepublic,  who  is  for  the  Empire  ? 

Meantime  he  has  had  smart  new  liveries  made  at  Brussels, 
to  amaze  the  Mexican  heart.  Likewise  he  has  been  seen 
trying  on  an  imperial  crown  of  gilt  pasteboard,  to  see  in  the 
glass  if  it  is  becoming.  This  I  believe  to  be  authentic.  But 
I  am  told  he  hasn't  got  a  penny.  Louis  Napoleon  is  squeezing 
everything  out  of  him  that  he  may  have  in  prospect.  In  one 
of  the  collections  of  curiosities  in  Vienna  there  is  a  staff  or 
sceptre  of  Montezuma,  but  I  believe  his  successor  is  not  even 
to  have  that,  which  is  I  think  unjust.  The  celebrated  bed  of 
roses  is,  however,  airing  for  him,  I  doubt  not.  I  put  into  this 
envelope  a  wedding  card  of  Kechberg  and  Bismarck,1  which 
has  been  thought  rather  a  good  joke  here,  so  much  so  as  to  be 
suppressed  by  the  police.  It  has  occurred  to  me  too  that  it 
might  amuse  you  to  look  over  a  few  of  the  Yienna  Punches. 
Figaro  is  the  name  of  the  chief  Witzllatt  here,  and  sometimes 
the  fooling  is  good  enough.  The  caricatures  of  Kechberg 
are  very  like  ;  those  of  Bismarck,  less  so. 

Julian  Fane  has  been  shut  up  a  good  while,  but  I  am  happy 
to  say  is  almost  himself  again.  I  saw  him  a  few  days  ago,  and 
he  bid  fair  to  be  soon  perfectly  well,  and  he  is  as  handsome 
and  fascinating  as  ever.  Dear  Lady  William,  can't  you  send 
me  your  photograph  ?  You  promised  it  me  many  times.  We 

1  Caricature  of  the  time. 


158  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V 

have  no  picture  of  you  of  any  kind.  We  should  like  much  to 
have  your  three  sons.  We  have  one  of  Odo,  however.  Like- 
wise we  should  exceedingly  like  to  have  one  of  Lord  Stratford 
de  Redcliffe,  if  you  think  you  could  get  it  for  us,  with  his 
autograph  written  below.  He  once  promised  it.  Will  you 
remember  us  most  sincerely  and  respectfully  to  him,  and 
prefer  this  request?  I  shall  venture  also  to  ask  you  some- 
times to  give  our  earnest  remembrances  to  Lord  and  Lady 
Palmerston.  We  never  forget  all  their  kindness  to  us.  But, 
if  I  begin  to  recall  myself  to  the  memory  of  those  I  never 
forget,  I  should  fill  another  sheet,  so  I  shall  trust  to  you  to  do 
this  to  all  who  remember  us.  And  pray  do  not  forget  us. 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  Edward  Everett. 

Boston, 
April  llth,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  MOTLEY, — I  received  your  welcome  letter  of 
the  22nd  March  a  few  days  ago  with  the  generous  contribution 
to  the  East  Tennessee  Fund.  I  could  not  resist  putting  a 
few  sentences  of  your  letter  into  the  newspapers,  with  the 
announcement  of  your  donation,  a  liberty  which  I  hope  you 
will  forgive.  Commencing  with  the  anonymous  gift  of  three 
dollars  from  the  teacher  of  one  of  our  public  schools,  it  has, 
without  the  slightest  organisation  for  the  collection  of  funds, 
nearly  reached  the  sum  of  $83,000,  all  spontaneously  sent, 
like  your  own  liberal  subscription,  to  my  address,  at  one  time 
&t  the  rate  of  four  or  five  thousand  dollars  a  day. 

The  event  confirmed  your  anticipation  that  I  should  receive 
here,  by  means  of  telegraphic  communications  in  Europe,  the 
news  of  the  Archduke's  acceptance  of  the  Mexican  crown 
before  your  letter  could  reach  me.  I  fear  it  will  prove  a 
crown  of  thorns  to  his  Imperial  Highness,  and  that  he  and 
his  Archduchess  will  wish  themselves  well  back  from  the  some- 
what mythical  "  halls  of  the  Montezumas  "  to  the  more  sub- 


1864.]  BISMARCK.  159 

.'stantial  splendours  and  comforts  of  Miramar.  Mr.  Seward 
ihas  certainly  managed  the  delicate  affair  with  discretion,  as  he 
'has  many  others.  Our  House  of  Eepresentatives  have,  by  a 
unanimous  vote,  passed  a  resolution  couched  in  moderate 
terms  but  of  pretty  significant  import.  What  effect  it  will 
have  depends  upon  other  events  of  still  more  immediate 
gravity. 

I  presume,  if  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe  are  drawn  into  a 
-war  on  the  Schleswig-Holstein  question,  we  shall  not  be  any 
longer  taunted  with  urging  war  for  insignificant  causes.  It  is 
three  years  to-morrow  since  the  bombardment  of  Sumter.  In 
that  brief  space  the  country  has  lived  generations.  I  know  no 
better  proof  of  this  than  that  Mr.  Keverdy  Johnson,  Attorney- 
General  in  Mr.  Tyler's  cabinet,  made  a  speech  in  the  Senate 
the  other  day,  in  favour  of  an  amendment  of  the  constitution 
prohibiting  slavery,  and  that  the  only  party  contests  in  Mary- 
land and  Missouri  are  between  the  friends  of  gradual  and 
immediate  emancipation.  In  fact,  in  Maryland  even  that 
contest  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist.  Mr.  Mayor  Swann  and 
my  friend  Kennedy,  who  last  autumn  led  the  opposition  to 
Mr.  H.  W.  Davis,  the  Kadical  candidate,  have  accepted  their 
defeat  with  a  good  grace  and  come  out  for  immediate  eman- 
cipation. 

Praying  my  kindest  remembrance  to  your  wife,  I  remain, 
my  dear  Mr.  Motley,  with  great  regard, 

Sincerely  yours, 

EDWAKD  EVERETT. 


From  Baron  von  Bismarck. 

Berlin, 
May  23rd,  1864. 

JACK  MY  DEAK, — Where  the  devil  are  you,  and  what  do 
you  do  that  you  never  write  a  line  to  me  ?  I  am  working 
from  morn  to  night  like  a  nigger,  and  you  have  nothing  to  do 
at  all — you  might  as  well  tip  me  a  line  as  well  as  looking  on 
your  feet  tilted  against  the  wall  of  God  knows  what  a  dreary 
colour.  I  cannot  entertain  a  regular  correspondence;  it 


160  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V- 

happens  to  me  that  during  five  days  I  do  not  find  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  for  a  walk ;  but  you,  lazy  old  chap,  what  keeps  you 
from  thinking  of  your  old  friends  ?  When  just  going  to  bed 
in  this  moment  my  eye  met  with  yours  on  your  portrait,  and 
I  curtailed  the  sweet  restorer,  sleep,  in  order  to  remind  you  of 
Auld  Lang  Syne.  Why  do  you  never  come  to  Berlin  ?  It  is 
not  a  quarter  of  an  American's  holiday  journey  from  Vienna^ 
and  my  wife  and  me  should  be  so  happy  to  see  you  once  more 
in  this  sullen  life.  When  can  you  come,  and  when  will  you  ? 
I  swear  that  I  will  make  out  the  time  to  look  with  you  on  old 
Logier's  quarters,  and  drink  a  bottle  with  you  at  Gerolt's, 
where  they  once  would  not  allow  you  to  put  your  slender  legs 
upon  a  chair.  Let  politics  be  hanged  and  come  to  see  me. 
I  promise  that  the  Union  Jack  shall  wave  over  our  house,  and 
conversation  and  the  best  old  hock  shall  pour  damnation  upon 
the  rebels.  Do  not  forget  old  friends,  neither  their  wives,  as 
mine  wishes  nearly  as  ardently  as  myself  to  see  you,  or  at 
least  to  see  as  quickly  as  possible  a  word  of  your  handwriting, 
Sei  gut  und  komm  oder  schreibe. 

Dein, 

V.  BISMARCK. 

Haunted  by  the  old  song, '  In  good  old  Colony  Times.' 


To  Ms  Mother. 

Vienna, 
May  25th,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — The  sad  news  of  my  dear  father's 
death  reached  me  just  before  the  departure  of  the  last 
American  post  from  this  place.  I  did  not  write  then  because 
I  felt  so  intensely  anxious  to  hear  as  to  your  own  health,  and  as 
to  the  effect  of  this  terrible  blow  upon  you,  that  I  waited  until 
I  should  hear  more.  Mary  had  a  very  kind  and  sympathetic 
letter  from  her  Aunt  Susan,  in  which  we  learned  particulars 
as  to  the  sad  event  and  as  to  your  own  condition  and  inten- 
tions for  the  summer,  which  we  wished  very  much  to  hear. 


1864.]  DEATH  OF  MR.  MOTLEY'S   FATHER.  161 

God  grant,  my  dearest,  dearest  mother,  that  you  may  bear 
bravely  up  against  this  earthly  termination  of  a  bond  which 
has  lasted  for  so  great  a  portion  of  your  life.  May  He  grant 
too  that  you  may  be  long  spared  to  us,  and  that  your  feeble 
health  may  yet  be  invigorated,  and  that  your  naturally  excel- 
lent constitution  may  get  the  better  of  the  chronic  ailments 
which  have  caused  you  so  much  suffering !  Alas !  I  cannot 
express  how  much  pain  it  has  given  me  to  be  an  exile  from 
home  at  this  moment.  How  deeply  do  I  regret  to  have  lost  the 
privilege  of  being  with  my  father,  which  the  rest  have  had, 
and  of  listening  to  his  dying  words !  But  it  was  fated  that 
I  should  never  find  employment  of  any  kind  at  home,  and  the 
occupations  of  my  life  since  I  became  a  worker  have  compelled 
me  to  reside  abroad. 

No  one  appreciated  more  than  I  did  the  excellent  qualities 
of  mind  and  character  which  distinguished  my  father.  I 
always  thoroughly  respected  and  honoured  his  perfect  in- 
tegrity, his  vigorous  and  uncommon  powers  of  mind,  his  re- 
markable vein  of  wit  and  native  humour,  with  which  all  who 
knew  him  were  familiar,  his  large  experience,  his  honourable 
prudence,  his  practical  sagacity,  and  his  singular  tenderness 
of  heart.  1  can  say  to  you  now,  what  it  was  difficult  for  me  to 
write  before,  that  it  has  always  been  a  cause  of  sincere  pain,  at 
times  almost  of  distress,  that  I  could  find  no  sympathy  with 
him  in  my  political  sentiments.  In  this  great  revolutionary  war 
now  going  on  in  our  country,  in  which  the  deepest  principles 
of  morality  and  public  virtue  are  at  stake,  and  in  which  the 
most  intense  emotions  of  every  heart  are  stirred,  it  would  have 
been  an  exquisite  satisfaction  to  me  could  I  have  felt  myself 
in  harmony  with  him  whom  as  my  father  I  truly  honoured, 
whose  character  and  mind  I  sincerely  respected,  but  whose 
opinions  I  could  not  share. 

You  may  believe  that  it  was  a  great  pain  that  I  could 
never  exchange  written  or  spoken  words  with  him  on  the 
great  subject  of  the  age  and  of  the  world,  and  I  therefore 
formed  the  resolution  of  always  addressing  my  letters  to 
you,  in  order  that  I  might  not  seem  to  say  to  him  what 
might  cause  controversy  between  us.  I  supposed  that  he 

VOL.  n.  M 


162  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  V. 

would  probably  read  or  not,  as  lie  chose,  what  I  wrote  to  you, 
and  that  he  could  not  be  annoyed  by  my  speaking  without 
restraint  on  such  occasions.  As  to  concealing  my  opinions, 
that  neither  he  nor  you  would  have  wished  me  to  do.  And, 
as  to  doubting  whether  I  am  right  or  not  in  the  feelings 
which  I  have  all  my  life  entertained  as  to  the  loathsome  insti- 
tution which  has  at  last  brought  this  tremendous  series  of 
calamities  upon  our  land,  I  should  as  soon  think  of  doubting 
the  existence  of  God.  Therefore  I  was  obliged  to  be  silent  to 
him,  and  I  have  often  expressed  the  regret  which  that  silence 
caused  me.  I  could  easily  understand,  however^  that  his  age, 
and  the  different  point  of  view  from  which  he  regarded 
political  subjects,  made  it  not  unnatural  that  he  should  hold 
with  tenacity  to  opinions  which  he  had  formed  with  delibera- 
tion and  acted  upon  intelligently  during  a  long  lifetime. 

As  I  cannot  yet  come  to  you,  I  am  very  glad  that  I  can  at 
least  send  Lily  as  a  representative  of  my  love  and  of  all  our 
love.  She  left  us  a  few  days  ago  with  Mrs.  Wads  worth,  and 
their  passages  are  taken  for  the  23rd  July,  from  Liverpool.  I 
hope  that  my  dear  sister  Annie  can  find  a  corner  for  her  in  her 
pleasant  house  at  the  "  corner,"  so  that  she  can  be  with  you 
for  a  time.  I  do  hope,  my  dearest  mother,  that  you  will  be 
able  ere  long  to  write  a  line  to  me.  A  very  few  words  will  be 
a  great  blessing  to  me  and  to  all  of  us.  Tell  me  how  you 
feel  in  body  and  in  mind.  Susan  describes  you  as  angelically 
calm  and  gentle  and  affectionate,  but  it  is  impossible  for  you 
to  be  otherwise.  You  have  been  so  all  your  life.  I  have  no 
wish  to  say  anything  of  ourselves,  save  that  we  are  well. 

Good-bye,  and  God  bless  you  and  keep  you,  my  ever  dearest 
mother.  All  send  most  tender  and  affectionate  remembrances, 
good  wishes,  and  love.  Give  my  best  love  to  Annie  and  to  all 
the  others,  and  believe  me 

Your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


1864.]  JULIUS  LOTHKOP.  163 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
June  15th,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — I  hardly  know  whether  it  will  in- 
terest you  much  to  hear  from  me.  Our  last  letters  describe 
you  as  very  feeble,  but  as  having  borne  the  journey  to  Dedham, 
on  the  whole,  very  well.  I  still  cherish  the  hope  that  the 
country  air  and  summer  weather  will  bring  healing  to  you. 
Oh,  that  I  could  come  to  you  and  be  with  you,  as  is  the  blessed 
privilege  of  the  rest  of  the  family  !  I  feel  as  if  I  were  almost 
an  outcast,  to  be  separated  from  you  now  that  you  are  so  suf- 
fering and  so  depressed  by  my  dear  father's  loss.  If  I  were 
not  in  Europe  at  a  post  of  duty  and  utterly  unable  to  leave  it, 
I  should  not  remain  an  hour  longer  on  this  side  of  the  water. 
Europe  has  long  since  ceased  to  have  attractions  for  me,  and  I 
have  perpetually  regretted  that  my  literary  profession,  and, 
subsequently,  my  present  occupation,  have  made  me  and  my 
children  exiles.  All  three  of  them  long  for  home,  and  they 
envy  the  others  who  can  see  and  help  to  nurse  and  watch,  over 
their  dear  grandmother. 

I  feel  happy  that  you  are  comfortably  lodged  with  Annie, 
and  most  sincerely  do  I  rejoice  that  she  has  so  providentially 
recovered  her  health  and  strength,  and  is  able  to  take  such 
tender  and  loving  care  of  you.  I  do  hope  that  I  may  receive  a 
letter  to-morrow  from  some  member  of  the  family,  which  may 
give  a  cheerful  account  of  your  health.  Poor  Mrs.  Lothrop  ! 
What  a  terrible  blow  to  lose  her  young,  gallant,  excellent  son, 
just  as  he  was  rising  to  distinction  and  increased  usefulness ! 
Well,  I  would  rather  have  a  dead  son  like  Julius  Lothrop,  than 
living  ones  who  keep  themselves  safe  from  all  danger,  and 
manifest  themselves  incapable  of  feeling  or  comprehending 
the  grandeur  and  the  nobleness  of  the  struggle  in  which  all 
that  is  courageous,  manly  and  heroic,  or  intelligent,  is  bound 
up  heart  and  soul.  We  are  intensely,  breathlessly  waiting  for 
the  next  news.  We  have  nothing  later  than  June  1st,  and 
that  left  the  two  great  armies  confronting  each  other  within 
half-a-dozen  miles  of  Bichmond,  with  a  battle  already  begun. 

M  2 


164  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

I  shall  say  no  more,  for  an  hour  or  two  may  bring  a  telegram 
of  four  days  later,  with  terrible  or  encouraging  news.  Thus 
far,  Grant  has  proceeded  with  extraordinary  energy  and  talent, 
and  one  tries  to  beat  down  the  busy  devil  who  tries  to  whisper 
fears  which  are  rather  born  of  past  disasters  than  of  anything 
unpromising  in  the  actual  circumstances.  If  I  consulted 
reason  only  and  not  the  dismal  experience  of  the  past,  I  should 
be  very  sanguine  as  to  the  results  of  the  present  campaign. 
Certainly,  if  Grant  can  take  Kichmond,  and  Sherman  occupies 
Atlanta,  the  slave  confederacy  falls  never  to  hope  again. 

It  seems  to  me  that  Grant  is  the  man  whom  we  have  been 
waiting  for  ever  since  the  war  began.  I  will  say  no  more,  lest 
what  I  am  saying  seem  nonsense  when  you  are  reading  it  in 
the  light  of  subsequent  events.  Good-bye :  may  God  bless 
you  and  watch  over  you,  my  dearest  mother ! 

All  send  love,  and  I  am, 

Most  affectionately,  your  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Us  Mother. 

Vienna, 
June  27th,  1861. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, — Of  public  matters,  the  war  between 
Germany  and  Denmark  begins  again  to-day,  and  it  must  soon 
be  decided  whether  England  is  able  'to  keep  out  of  the  busi- 
ness or  not. 

The  sinking  of  the  Alabama  by  the  plucky  little  Kearsarge 
will  occasion  great  glee  everywhere  at  home,  and  I  can  almost 
hear  the  shouts  of  delight  at  this  distance.  In  Europe  every- 
body is  exceedingly  vexed.  All  newspapers,  except  the  very 
few  Liberal  ones  of  England  and  France,  gnash  their  teeth 
with  fury  at  the  defeat  of  Semmes,  but  console  themselves 
with  the  personal  escape  of  the  much-admired  hero,  and  with 
the  facts  as  they  represent  them,  that  the  Kearsarge  was  an 
immensely  superior  vessel,  iron-dad,  and  with  three  times  as 
many  guns,  and  so  on  and  so  on. 

Of  personal  matters  there  is  not  much  to  say.     I  rarely  stir 


1864.]  AT  WORK  ON  THE  'HISTORY.'  165 

from  home.  Most  fortunately  for  me  the  four  hundred  people 
who  make  up  the  Vienna  world  go  out  of  town  by  the  1st  ot 
June,  so  that  I  have  my  whole  time  for  work  and  have  no 
social  occupations  of  any  sort. 

Occasionally  Mary  and  the  girls  go  into  the  country  to 
pass  a  quiet  day  with  the  D' Ay  lions,  the  Gramonts,  and 
the  Bloomfields.  Thus  far  I  have  not  accompanied  them. 
Next  week  we  shall  probably  make  a  visit  to  a  very  hospitable 
Austrian  family,  Count  Spiegel,  whose  daughters  are  very 
intimate  with  our  girls,  and  who  wish  them  to  see  their  fine 
old  chateau.  But  my  life  is  passed  mainly  in  my  library  and 
garden.  As  I  can't  be  in  America  and  with  you,  my  dearest 
mother,  the  best  thing  for  me  is  to  be  occupied. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  no  longer  work  with  the  same 
interest  and  passion  for  my  work  as  before.     The  sixteenth  cen- 
tury palls  before  the  nineteenth.     All  join  in  love  and  dearest 
remembrances  to  you,  and  I  remain,  my  dearest  mother, 
Ever  most  affectionately,  your  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Lady  William  Eussell. 

Vienna, 
June  2Qth,  1864. 

DEAK  LADY  WILLIAM, — You  are  always  so  kind  in  saying 
that  you  like  occasionally  to  hear  from  us,  and  it  is  always 
such  an  exquisite  pleasure,  when  one  of  your  green  leaves 
come  fluttering  in  this  direction,  that  I  should  long  ago  have 
replied  to  your  last  kind  and  delightful  greeting  of  the  last 
day  of  April,  but  for  reasons.  We  have  had  domestic  afflic- 
tion. Since  I  last  wrote,  my  father  has  died,  and  my  mother, 
who  is  an  angel  among  women,  is  so  infirm  that  I  dread  every 
day  to  open  my  letters  from  home,  and  yet  I  am  an  exile  and 
cannot  leave  my  post.  I  shall  say  no  more,  nor  would  I  have 
said  so  much,  but  I  trust  to  your  heart,  for  I  know  how 
tender  and  truthful  it  is,  especially  in  regard  to  the  most 
sacred  tie  between  human  beings,  that  of  parents  and  child. 

I  am  leading  the  life  of  a  hermit,  and  try  to  occupy  myself 


166  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V, 

with  the  sixteenth  century.  I  have  written  a  volume  or  so 
since  I  have  been  here,  but  I  always  feel  like  a  circus  rider, 
trying  to  bestride  two  horses  at  once.  One  of  my  steeds  is 
called  the  sixteenth,  the  other  the  nineteenth,  century,  and 
both  go  at  a  tremendous  pace.  My  daughter  Lily  has  left 
us.  She  is  on  her  way  to  make  a  visit  in  America  with  our 
friend  Mrs.  Wadsworth,  and  we  are  most  desolate  without 
her.  She  was  my  second  secretary  of  legation,  and  a  most 
efficient  one — the  pillar  of  my  house ;  and  it  seems  tumbling 
about  our  ears  now  she  is  gone.  She  is  the  very  light  of  our 
eyes.  Poor  child !  she  doesn't  go  home  for  amusement,  but 
she  is  deeply  interested  in  her  Vaterland.  The  very  day  after 
their  arrival  in  Paris  came  the  news  that  General  Wadsworth 
was  killed,  the  bravest  of  the  brave,  the  noblest  of  the  noble, 
a  man  of  princely  fortune,  heroic  sentiments,  the  most  generous 
and  genial  of  friends.  We  shall  soon  all  of  us  have  more  dead 
friends  than  live  ones.  But  this  is  an  age  of  tragedy. 

My  daughter  will  probably  pass  through  London  on  her 
way  to  the  steamer  at  Liverpool.  She  will  certainly  find  her 
way  to  your  door,  and  I  hope  you  will  smile  upon  her  for  a 
moment,  for  her  own  sake,  and  for  ours.  My  wife  joins  me  in 
kindest  and  most  affectionate  regards  and  good  wishes,  and  I 
remain  most  sincerely  and  devotedly 

Yours, 

VAEIUS. 


To  his  Mother. 

July  27th,  1864. 

....  I  shall  be  disappointed  if  when  this  letter  arrives 
Sherman  has  not  taken  Atlanta,  and  Grant  taken  or  destroyed 
Petersburg. 

Tell  my  darling  Lily,  who  of  course  will  see  you  long 
before  you  see  this,  that  she  must  pardon  me  for  not  writing 
by  this  post.  Mary  has  done  so,  however,  and  probably  told 
her  about  my  friend  Bismarck.  He  is  at  present  Prime  Minister 
of  Prussia,  and  is  here  to  negotiate  a  peace  with  Denmark. 
We  were  very  intimate  in  our  youth,  and  have  always  kept  up 


1864.]  'THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW.'  167 

the  association,  having  renewed  our  old  friendship  six  years 
years  ago  at  Frankfort,  where  he  was  Prussian  Envoy  at  the 
Diet.  He  dined  with  us  yesterday  en  famille,  asking  me  to 
have  no  one  else  except  Werther,  the  Prussian  Minister  here, 
that  we  might  talk  of  old  times,  and  be  boys  again.  Tell 
Lily  that  he  regretted,  he  said,  very  much  not  seeing  her, 
having  heard  so  much  in  her  praise  from  Baron  Werther,  and 
many  others.  I  regret  it,  too,  excessively.  Lily  will  tell  you 
all  about  him  politically.  He  is  as  sincere  and  resolute  a 
monarchist  and  absolutist  as  I  am  a  republican.  But  that 
doesn't  interfere  with  our  friendship,  as  I  believe  that  Prussia 
is  about  as  likely  to  become  a  republic  as  the  United  States  to 
turn  into  a  military  monarchy.  The  aspect  of  things  is  more 
pacific  just  now  in  Europe,  but  the  peace  is  not  yet  made. 

Good-bye,  and  God  bless  you,  my  dearest  mother.     Give  my 
love  to  Annie  and  to  all  the  family,  and  to  my  darling  Lily. 
Ever  most  affectionately,  your  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  J.  E.  Lowell. 

Cambridge, 

July  28th,  1864. 

MY  DEAE  MOTLEY, — I  write  you  on  a  matter  of  business. 
You  may  have  heard  that  Norton  and  I  have  undertaken  to 
edit  the  North  American — a  rather  Sisyphian  job,  you  will  say. 
It  wanted  three  chief  elements  to  be  successful.  It  wasn't 
thoroughly,  that  is,  thick  and  thinly,  loyal,  it  wasn't  lively, 
and  it  had  no  particular  opinions  on  any  particular  subject. 

It  was  an  eminently  safe  periodical,  and  accordingly  was 
in  great  danger  of  running  aground.  It  was  an  easy  matter, 
of  course,  to  make  it  loyal — even  to  give  it  opinions  (such  as 
they  were),  but  to  make  it  alive  is  more  difficult.  Perhaps  the 
day  of  the  quarterlies  is  gone  by,  and  those  megatheria  of 
letters  may  be  in  the  mere  course  of  nature  withdrawing  to 
their  last  swamps  to  die  in  peace.  Anyhow,  here  we  are  with 
our  megatherium  on  our  hands,  and  we  must  strive  to  find, 
what  will  fill  his  huge  belly,  and  keep  him  alive  a  little 
longer.  You  see  what's  coming.  Pray  imagine  all  the  fine 


168  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V. 

speeches  and  God-bless-your-honours,  and  let  me  proceed  at 
once  to  hold  out  the  inevitable  hat.  Couldn't  you  write  us 
an  article  now  and  then  ?  It  would  be  a  great  help  to  us, 
and  you  shall  have  carte  Uanche  as  to  subject.  Couldn't  you 
write  on  the  natural  history  of  that  diplomatic  cuttlefish  of 
Schleswig-Holstein  without  forfeiting  your  ministerial  equa- 
nimity ?  The  creature  has  be-muddled  himself  with  such  a 
cloud  of  ink  that  he  is  almost  indescernible  to  the  laic  eye. 
Or  on  recent  German  literature?  Or  on  Austria  and  its 
resources  ?  Or,  in  short,  on  anything  that  may  be  solemn  in 
topic,  and  entertaining  in  treatment.  Our  pay  isn't  much,  but 
you  shall  have  five  dollars  a  page,  and  the  object  is  in  a  sense 
patriotic.  If  the  thought  be  dreadful,  see  if  you  can't  find 
also  something  pleasing  in  it  as  Young  managed  to  do  in 
'  Eternity.'  Imagine  the  difference  in  the  tone  of  the 
'  Keview.'  If  you  are  a  contributor,  of  course  it  will  always  be 
"  Our  amiable  and  accomplished  minister  at  the  Court  of 
Vienna,  who  unites  in  himself,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. ;  or  else,  "  In 
such  a  state  of  affairs  it  was  the  misfortune  of  this  country  to 
be  represented  at  Yienna  by  a  minister  as  learned  in  Low 
Dutch  as  he  was  ignorant  of  high  statesmanship,"  etc.,  etc.  I 
pull  my  beaver  over  my  eyes  and  mutter  "  Bewa-r-re !  "  etc. 
But,  seriously,  you  can  help  us  a  great  deal,  and  I  really  do 
not  care  what  you  write  about  if  you  will  only  write. 

As  to  our  situation  here,  you  are  doubtless  well  informed. 
My  own  feeling  has  always  been  confident  and  it  is  now 
hopeful.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  is  re-chosen,  I  think  the  war  will 
soon  be  over.  If  not,  there  will  be  attempts  at  negotiation, 
during  which  the  rebels  will  recover  breath,  and  then  war 
again  with  more  chances  in  their  favour.  Just  now  everything 
looks  well.  The  real  campaign  is  clearly  in  Georgia,  and 
Grant  has  skilfully  turned  all  eyes  to  Virginia  by  taking  the 
command  there  in  person.  Sherman  is  a  very  able  man,  in 
dead  earnest,  and  with  a  more  powerful  army  than  that  of 
Virginia.  It  is  true  that  the  mercantile  classes  are  longing 
for  peace,  but  I  believe  the  people  are  more  firm  than  ever. 
So  far  as  I  can  see,  the  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln  is  both 
selfish  and  factious,  but  it  is  much  in  favour  of  the  right  side 


1864.]  THE  PKOSPECT  IN  AMERICA.  Ifi9 

that  the  democratic  party  have  literally  not  so  much  as  a 
single  plank  of  principle  to  float  on,  and  the  sea  runs  high. 
They  don't  know  what  they  are  in  favour  of — hardly  what 
they  think  it  safe  to  be  against.  And  I  doubt  if  they  will 
gain  much  by  going  into  an  election  on  negatives.  I  attach 
some  importance  to  the  peace  negotiation  at  Niagara  (ludi- 
crous as  it  was)  as  an  indication  of  despair  on  the  part 
of  the  rebels,  especially  as  it  was  almost  coincident  with 
Clanricarde's  movement  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Don't  be 
alarmed  about  Washington.  The  noise  made  about  it  by  the 
Copperheads  is  enough  to  show  there  is  nothing  dangerous  in 
any  rebel  movements  in  that  direction.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
Washington  is  as  safe  as  Vienna.  What  the  Fremont  de- 
fection may  accomplish  I  can't  say,  but  I  have  little  fear 
from  it.  Its  strength  lies  solely  among  our  German  Kadicals, 
the  most  impracticable  of  mankind.  If  our  population  had 
been  as  homogeneous  as  during  the  revolutionary  war,  our 
troubles  would  have  been  over  in  a  year.  All  our  foreign 
trading  population  have  no  fatherland  but  the  till,  and  have 
done  their  best  to  destroy  our  credit.  All  our  snobs  too,  are 
Secesh. 

But  I  always  think  of  Yirgil's 

"Pur  a  noi  converia  vincer  la  punga 
.  .  .  se  non — tal  ne  s'  offerse." 

We  have  the  promise  of  God's  Word  and  God's  nature  on 
our  side.  Moreover  I  have  never  believed,  do  not  now  believe, 
in  the  possibility  of  separation.  The  instinct  of  the  people  on 
both  sides  is  against  it.  Is  not  the  "  coup  de  grace "  of  the 
Alabama  refreshing  ?  That  an  American  sloop  of  war  should 
sink  a  British  ship  of  equal  force,  manned  by  British  sailors 
and  armed  with  British  guns  in  the  British  Channel !  There 
is  something  to  make  John  Bull  reflect. 

Now  do  write  something  for  us,  if  you  can,  and,  with  kindest 
remembrances  to  Mrs.  Motley, 

Believe  me  always, 

Cordially  yours, 

J.  E.  LOWELL. 


170  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
August  3rd,  1864. 

MY  DEAKEST  MOTHER, — Just  now  we  are  rather  a  small 
family.  Mary  is  making  a  little  visit  to  our  friends,  the 
Ayllons,  at  Voslau,  so  that  we  are  but  three  just  now  to  keep 
the  pot  boiling.  The  prominent  topic  of  the  last  week  has 
been  the  peace  negotiations  between  the  two  great  German 
Powers  (Prussia  and  Austria)  and  Denmark.  The  prelimi- 
naries were  signed  yesterday,  and  the  armistice  prolonged  for 
six  weeks.  In  short  the  peace  is  made. 

This  is  all  the  commentary  I  shall  make  to-day  on  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  history.  To  me  the  most  interesting  part 
of  these  Vienna  Conferences  was  that  they  brought  my  old 
friend  Bismarck  to  this  place.  He  thinks  it  about  as  possible 
to  transplant  what  is  called  parliamentary  government  into 
Prussia,  as  Abraham  Lincoln  believes  in  the  feasibility  of 
establishing  an  aristocracy  in  the  United  States.  I  venerate 
Abraham  Lincoln  exactly  because  he  is  the  true  honest  type 
of  American  Democracy.  There  is  nothing  of  the  shabby 
genteel,  the  would-be-but-couldn't-be  fine  gentleman ;  he  is 
the  great  American  Demos,  honest,  shrewd,  homely,  wise, 
humorous,  cheerful,  brave,  blundering  occasionally,  but  through 
blunders  struggling  onward  towards  what  he  believes  the 
right.  I  have  a  great  faith  in  Grant ;  I  think  he  is  the  man 
we  have  been  wanting  for  these  three  years,  but  I  don't  feel 
absolutely  certain.  But  this  I  will  say,  that,  if  he  takes 
Kichmond  before  Christmas,  his  Vicksburg  and  Virginia 
campaigns  will  prove  him  the  greatest  general  now  living. 
But  this  is  a  great  if,  I  confess.  Still,  I  think  he  will  do  it. 
Good-bye,  my  dearest  mother.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  of 
you  as  improving  in  health  and  spirits.  Try  to  write  me 
half  a  dozen  lines  when  you  can.  It  is  such  a  pleasure  to  see 
your  handwriting. 

Ever  your  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


1864.]  A  DINNER  WITH  BISMARCK.  171 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
August  16th,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — We  have  a  telegram  this  morning,  date 
August  6th,  telling  us  that  Grant  has  been  repulsed  at  Peters- 
burg  This  time  I  really  believe  we  have  had  a  defeat, 

notwithstanding  that  the  telegraph  says  so,  because  I  have 
been  feeling  these  three  days,  ever  since  the  attack  was  in 
progress,  that  it  could  not  result  otherwise.  Since  the  days  of 
Fort  Donelson,  few  attacks  made  in  front  upon  entrenchments 
by  either  belligerent  have  succeeded.  It  seems  to  me  that 
they  cannot  succeed  ;  and,  if  anything  could  stagger  my  pro- 
found faith  in  G-rant,  it  would  be  many  repetitions  of  such 
assaults.  If  he  can't  make  Lee  attack  him — which  I  always 
thought  would  be  his  game — I  shall  be  disappointed 

The  only  ripple  we  have  had  on  our  surface  is  when  the 
bold  Bismarck  made  his  appearance.  Your  mother  has  told 
you  about  him,  and  it  was  the  greatest  delight  to  me  to  see 
him  again.  He  and  Werther  dined  with  us  one  day  en 
famille,  and  we  drank  three  bottles  of  claret  (not  apiece)  ;  but 
we  sat  until  half-past  nine  at  table,  much  to"the  amazement  of 
the  servants  ;  for  what  well-conducted  domestic  in  Vienna  can 
tolerate  any  remaining  at  table  after  the  finger-bowls  ?  Of 
course,  the  Fremdenblatt  and  all  the  other  journals  announced 
next  morning  that  "  Sir  Motley,"  the  American  Envoy,  had 
given  a  "  gala  dinner  "  to  Minister  Bismarck,  Count  Eechberg, 
the  Danish  Plenipotentiary,  and  a  string  of  other  guests,  most 
of  whom  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of  knowing  by  sight.  En 
revanche,  three  days  afterwards,  as  I  believe  your  mother  has 
informed  you,  we  did  give  a  dinner  of  a  dozen,  and  the  jour- 
nals conscientiously  stated  next  morning  that  Baron  Werther 
had  given  a  "  gala  dinner  "  to  M.  de  Bismarck,  adding  a  list 
of  convives,  not  one  of  whom  were  of  the  party. 

Ever  your  affectionate  - 
P. 


172  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

To  Ms  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
August  23rd,  1864. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — We  have  had  little  of  stirring  in- 
terest since  you  left.  The  girls  with  their  mother  go  pretty 
often  to  the  Duchesse  de  Gramont's  Thursday  afternoons  at 
Baden,  and  occasionally  to  the  Spiegels'  Saturdays.  But  I 
always  back  out.  I  cannot  stand  society,  and  my  social  duties 
are  trampled  underfoot.  The  incident  of  the  week  is  the 
advent  of  the  King  of  Prussia.  He  came  Saturday  night. 
On  Sunday  evening  the  diplomatic  corps  were  invited  to  a 
theatrical  exhibition  at  the  Schloss  Theatre  in  Schonbrunn. 
As  this  was  a  mere  act  of  business,  not  of  amusement,  of  course 
we  went.  We  drove  out  after  dinner,  arriving  at  8  P.M.  No- 
body wore  uniform  but  the  military  individuals.  We  entered 
at  once  into  the  theatre,  a  pretty  little  affair,  rather  freshly 
decorated,  and,  as  compared  with  the  dingy  old  Burg  Theatre, 
quite  brilliant.  No  expense  had  been  spared  in  candles  and 
lamp  oil.  The  imperial  box  occupies  the  space  exactly  in 
front  of  the  stage;  on  the  seats  on  the  right  (there  are  no 
boxes)  were  the  dips,  the  ladies  in  front.  On  the  left  the 
long  rows  of  Schwartzenbergs,  Liechtensteins,  Esterhazys,  and 
other  swells.  Below  there  was  a  pit  full  of  attaches,  officers  of 
the  guard,  and  similar  blooming  plants.  The  great  Strauss, 
placed  on  high  amid  his  tuneful  choir,  directed  the  orchestra. 

The  imperial  party  consisted  of  the  Empress,  with  our 
Holier  Gast  on  the  right,  in  an  Austrian  colonel's  white 
uniform.  His  S.E.A.M.  looked  much  as  usual;  and  there 
were  a  few  archdukes  sprinkled  about,  among  whom  the 
pensive is  the  only  one  I  recollect. 

The  play  was  '  Biirgerlich  und  Komantisch,'  which  I  never 
saw  before  and  trust  never  to  see  again.  It  was  wonderfully 
slow,  although  all  the  best  actors  and  actresses  were  in  it — 
Wolter,  Baudius,  those  corpulent  amoureux  Baumeister  and 
Sonnenthal,  and  Beckmann,  Meixner,  and  the  rest.  "  And  if 
the  king  liked  not  our  comedy :  why  then  belike  he  liked  it 
not  perdy.'  And  if  he  didn't,  his  Majesty  and  I  were  both  of 


1861.]  THE  KING  OF  PKUSSIA  IN  VIENNA.  173 

a  mind.  When  half  our  dreary  task  was  done,  we  were  all 
(that  is  the  chief  dips,  male  and  female)  taken  into  a 
kind  of  drawing-room,  at  one  side  of  which  we  were  stood  up 
like  ninepins  to  be  bowled  down  by  their  various  Majesties. 
The  King  of  Prussia  had  his  first  innings— a  tall,  sturdy, 
goodhumoured-faced  elderly  man.  Werther  introduced  us  one 
after  another,  quite  promiscuous.  My  interview  was  a  short 
one.  He  said,  "  Ah,  I  have  heard  of  you  from  my  daughter- 
in-law.  You  are  an  author."  I  didn't  contradict  him.  Then 
he  asked  if  it  was  long  since  I  had  seen  her.  I  being  more 
than  usually  weak-minded  and  hard  of  hearing  understood 
him  to  ask  how  long  since  I  left  America.  But  being  not 
quite  sure  said  interrogatively,  "  L'Amerique  ?  "  He  replied, 
"  Non,  ma  lelle  fille."  To  which  I  said,  "  A  few  months  since  " — 
it  being  I  believe  about  two  years  and  a  half.  However, 
Werther  was  already  goading  him  on  to  the  next  man,  so  our  in- 
terview terminated,  and  all  I  can  say  is  that  if  his  Majesty  did 
not  set  me  down  for  an  idiot  he  is  not  the  king  I  took  him  for. 
In  about  three  quarters  of  an  hour  we  were  dismissed 
to  hear  the  rest  of  the  play,  and  then  all  sent  home  supperless 
to  bed.  We  reached  the  Husarzewski  Palace  at  11  P.M.  very 
hungry  and  exhausted  (having  dined  at  three),  and  I  imme- 
diately sent  for  a  pot  of  beer  and  drank  my  own  health  in 
solitary  state.  Then  went  to  bed.  This  is  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  diplomatic  body's  participation  in  the  festivities. 
I  only  had  a  glimpse  of  Bismarck.  He  promised  certainly  to 
come  to  see  us  if  the  King  stayed  two  days  more.  But  I 
think  it  very  doubtful  whether  I  shall  see  him.  However, 
when  he  was  here  the  other  day,  he  came  three  times,  and 
dined  with  us  twice.  Your  affectionate 

PAPAGEI. 

If  your  dear  grandmother  should  seem  in  any  way  surprised 
or  hurt  that  we  went  to  Court,  you  must  explain  that  a  minister 
and  his  wife  go  to  such  ceremonies  as  part  of  their  official 
duties,  and  that  it  would  be  considered  here  a  violation  of  the 
proprieties  to  be  absent  except  in  the  case  of  a  very  recent  ^ 
domestic  affliction.  Certainly  it  was  not  a  merry-making. 


174  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
August  31st,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHEE, — The  question — as  it  will  appear  to 
all  men  a  few  years  hence — to  be  decided  at  the  November 
election  is  simply,  Shall  the  Union  be  restored  with  slavery  or 
without  slavery  ?  I  am  very  glad  at  any  rate  that  the  question 
is  distinctly  and  broadly  placed  so  that  there  is  no  dodging  the 
issue.  Thank  God,  we  have  done  with  humbug  on  the  slavery 
question.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  supporters  have  planted  them- 
selves firmly  on  the  Abolition  platform,  in  favour  of  amend- 
ing the  constitution  so  as  to  prohibit  slavery  for  ever  in  the 
United  States.  And  if  he  is  elected  the  constitution  will  be 
so  amended  within  a  couple  of  years,  and  the  war  will  be  over 
as  soon.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  meeting  for  McClellan 
in  New  York  has  come  out  most  nobly  for  slavery ;  and,  if  he 
gets  the  nomination  at  Chicago,  we  know  all  of  us  that  in 
voting  for  him  we  are  voting  for  slavery.  I  do  not  by  any 
means  deny  the  possibility  of  his  election.  I  do  not  expect  it, 
but  I  dread  it  more  than  I  can  express. 

God  bless  you  !     Give  my  love  to  Annie  and  all  the  family. 
Ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
September  1th,  1864. 

MY  DEAEEST  LILY, — Your  long  nice  letter  to  Mary  came 
yesterday,  only  fifteen  days  old,  the  Persia  having  made  a 
short  passage  as  usual.  It  was  delightful  to  get  so  many  and 
fresh  details ;  we  have  read  it  over  several  times.  Mary 
arrived  the  day  before  ;  otherwise  her  letter  would  have  been 
broken  open  before  sending  it  to  Voslau.  She  has,  however, 
finished  her  month's  visit  to  the  dear  D'Ayllons,  and  is  now 
relieved  by  the  Storenfried,  whose  departure  from  this  esta- 


1864.]  EXCLUDED  FROM  THE  VIENNA  ARCHIVES.  175 

blishinent  is  always  regretted  by  me,  in  spite  of  her  noise,  and 
because  (if  for  no  other  reason)  we  are  now  obliged  to  decide 
for  ourselves  every  afternoon  whether  we  will  drive  to  Dorn- 
bach,  the  Prater,  or  Schonbrunn,  and  whether  or  not  we  will  go 
to  the  Opera.  All  these  matters  being  decided  by  her  usually 
with  great  promptness,  our  existence  is  simplified.  Last  night 
we  drove  over  to  Weidlingau,  for  the  very  first  time  this 
summer,  except  the  day  we  all  four  dined  there,  and  found 

nobody  there  as  company  but  Mrs.  Y ,  who  is  staying  with 

Lady  Bloomfield  ;  the  Cramers,  of  course — the  Callimakis,  by 

the  way,  are  supposed  to  have  departed  for  ever ;  Don  T 

M ,  C.E.,  M.P.,  of  his  Serene  Majesty  Maximilian  I.  of 

Mexico.     Pretty  little  B has  had  his  hair,  not  cropped, 

but  almost  shaven,  and  looks  very  funny,  with  his  delicate 

cameo  features  and  his  forgat  ecliappe  coiffure.     De  l'A 

said,  as  I  was  expressing  my  wonder,  "  He  wants  to  shave, 

and  so  has  to  shave  his  head  !  "     At  which  B was  wroth, 

and  smote  the  chaffer,  for  in  truth  "  his  having  no  beard  is 
still  a  younger  brother's  revenue." 

Everybody  asks  very  kindly  after  you,  and  you  are  still  very 
freshly  remembered.  As  for  us,  we  miss  you  more  and  more 
daily,  and  yet  I  am  glad  you  have  gone,  for  this  Vienna  exist- 
ence is  a  very  mummifying  process."  Your  mother  is  seriously 
contemplating  a  visit  to  the  Spiegels  in  Moravia.  The  three, 

Count  and  Countess  Spiegel  and  Miss  T ,  dined  with  us 

last  week,  and  were  very  cordial  in  their  invitation.  Also  Count 
Waldstein  came  to  me  the  other  day,  and  urged  our  coming  to 
Hungary  for  a  visit.  But  there  is  no  chance  of  my  going.  I  have 
just  had  a  great  disappointment,  by  the  way.  Three  or  four 
days  ago  I  marched  down  to  the  Archives,  intending  then  and 
there  to  begin  a  long  course  of  study  during  the  remainder  of 
my  stay  in  Vienna.  The  Archivist,  a  very  civil  little  dried- 
up  old  gentleman,  who  has  obviously  occupied  his  present 
position  ever  since  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  professed  great 
willingness  to  assist  me  in  every  way,  observed,  however,  that  a 
written  form  was  necessary  before  I  could  go  in  and  read.  I 
had  already  spoken  to  Count  Kechberg  three  months  before, 
who  said  I  had  only  to  refer  the  Archivist  to  him.  I  now  went 


176  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

to  Baron  Meysenbug  to  request  him  to  draw  up  the  order,  when 
what  was  my  horror  to  find  that  it  was  an  ancient  and  im- 
mutable law  that  no  member  of  the  diplomatic  corps  could 
have  the  entrance  of  the  Archives.  I  tried  in  vain  to  assault, 
undermine,  and  flank  the  position.  All  in  vain — I  am  ex- 
cluded, and  I  am  ready  to  knock  my  head  against  the  walls  of 
the  Foreign  Office  in  despair.  I  shall  say  no  more  on  the 
subject  to-day.  Perhaps  yet  I  may  find  some  loophole,  but  I 
doubt. 

I  observe  what  you  say  about  the  Women's  League,  and 
I  feel  disposed  to  say  a  few  words  about  it.  It  is,  and  always 
will  be,  a  mystery  to  me  why  we,  who  are  the  most  intelli- 
gent and  practical  and  earnest  community  in  the  world, 
have  always  refused  to  study  the  first  principles  of  political 
economy.  It  is  now  about  eighty  years  since  Adam  Smith 
published  the  '  Wealth  of  Nations,'  a  book  of  which  Burke 
says  (I  think  without  exaggeration)  that  it  has  done  more 
for  human  happiness  than  all  the  labours  of  all  the  statesmen 
and  legislators  of  whom  there  is  authentic  record.  And  yet, 
so  far  as  the  American  people  is  concerned,  Adam  Smith 
might  never  have  written  a  line ;  and  one  can  scarcely  read 
a  speech  or  a  public  document  in  our  country  without  seeing 
the  old  fallacies  which  he  destroyed,  and  which  nevertheless 
flourish  as  greenly  as  ever  on  our  side  of  the  Atlantic.  People 
are  eternally  talking  of  the  "  balance  of  trade,"  and  of  "  pre- 
venting the  export  of  specie,"  and  of  having  the  "  exports 
larger  than  the  imports,  in  order  to  make  commerce  profit- 
able," exactly  as  they  used  to  do  in  Europe  in  the  last 
century,  but  as  no  one  could  talk  in  this  hemisphere  without 
showing  that  he  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to  look  even  at  the 
rudiments  of  political  economy. 

All  trade  being  a  barter  of  commodities,  an  equilibrium  is 
the  necessary  condition  to  which  it  always  tends.  One  year 
with  another,  or  two  years  or  so  as  it  may  be,  the  exports 
and  the  imports  must  balance  themselves.  A  sum  of  gold 
and  silver  (the  only  commodity  universally  recognised  as 
money  or  universal  medium  of  exchange)  is  shoved  to  and 
fro  to  adjust  this  balance,  which  never  can  be  long  unadjusted. 


1864.]  THE  EBB  AND  FLOW  OF  GOLD.  177 

Thus  if  the  imports  have  been  very  much  in  excess  of  the 
exports  during  a  considerable  period  of  time,  the  necessity 
of  paying  the  difference  causes  the  sending  out  of  some 
millions  of  specie  week  after  week  and  month  after  month. 
This  very  export,  diminishing  the  volume  of  the  currency, 
makes  (as  is  popularly  said)  money  tight,  and  therefore  causes 
prices  to  fall.  Goods  and  produce  becoming  gradually  less 
valuable  in  proportion  to  the  precious  metals  as  the  latter 
go  on  diminishing  in  quantity,  a  point  is  ultimately  reached 
at  which  it  is  cheaper  again  to  export  goods  than  gold.  At 
the  same  time,  prices  having  reached  so  low  a  grade,  it  is 
not  desirable  to  import  goods  from  abroad,  for  they  would 
be  imported  at  a  loss.  Therefore  gold  begins  to  come  back 
in  pay  for  the  increased  exports  and  in  place  of  the  dimin- 
ished imports.  The  tide  has  turned  again,  and  the  ebb  and 
flow  is  as  regular  as  any  natural  phenomenon,  when  you 
compare  periods  of  a  few  years  with  each  other. 

I  don't  mean  to  write  a  long  chapter  of  political  economy, 
but  it  is  really  painful  to  hear  this  perpetual  talk  about  the 
imports  exceeding  the  exports,  and  about  keeping  precious 
metals  in  the  country,  as  if  gold  alone  was  wealth,  and  as  if  in 
our  present  condition  of  having  an  inconvertible  paper  cur- 
rency, the  premium  on  gold  (as  it  is  called),  was  the  result  of 
over  importation.  What  I  have  been  saying  all  along  about 
the  laws  of  trade  supposes  of  course  a  currency  of  gold  and 
silver  mixed  with  paper  convertible  into  specie  at  the  will  of  the 
bearer.  So  long  as  a  country  has  this  indispensable  requisite 
to  commercial  health,  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  pre- 
mium on  gold,  and  the  difference  of  exchange  can  never  be 
more  than  a  very  few  per  cent,  between  countries  so  situated. 
But  we  are  not  in  a  condition  of  national  health,  but  in  the 
very  crisis  and  delirium  of  a  most  terrible  fever,  the  issue 
of  which  as  I  believe  most  firmly  will  be  a  longer  national 
life  and  more  vigorous  constitution  than  we  at  one  time  dared 
to  hope  for.  Nevertheless  we  are  in  a  diseased  condition. 
One  of  our  most  dangerous  symptoms  and  to  be  most 
anxiously  watched  is  exactly  this  inconvertible  paper  currency. 
Government  has  issued  some  six  hundred  millions  of  it  in 

VOL.  II.  N 


178  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

addition  to  the  three  or  four  hundred  millions  emitted  by  the 
banks.  As  specie  payments  have  long  since  been  suspended, 
gold  has  no  more  to  do  with  our  currency  than  lead  or 
pewter.  If  five  hundred  millions  of  it  should  be  imported 
into  New  York  to-morrow,  it  would  not  make  any  material 
difference  in  the  value  of  the  paper  currency.  It  would  not 
enter  into  the  circulation  any  more  than  five  hundred  millions 
worth  of  diamonds  and  emeralds  would  do,  and  would  not 
make  us  any  richer  or  more  comfortable  in  any  way  than  the 
diamonds  and  emeralds,  or  the  same  amount  of  broadcloth  or 
Brussels  lace. 

Gold  goes  out  and  comes  in  quite  irrespectively  of  the 
depreciated  condition  of  our  currency,  and  in  obedience  to 
the  great  tidal  law  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  If  any 
proof  of  this  were  required  (which  is  not  the  case,  for  these 
are  among  the  axioms,  not  the  demonstrations),  you  may  have 
it  in  any  newspaper.  At  this  moment  I  read  in  the  last 
American  journals  that  gold  is  at  157  premium,  and  yet  the 
exchanges  are  in  our  favour.  Any  merchant  will  tell  you 
at  this  moment  that  it  is  cheaper  to  buy  a  bill  of  exchange 
at  the  current  price  in  the  market  than  to  buy  gold  to  send 
abroad.  The  truth  is  we  are  perpetually  confounding  two 
sets  of  phenomena  essentially  distinct.  At  this  very  moment, 
therefore,  gold,  although  (in  common  parlance)  at  157  pre- 
mium, ought  not  to  be  exported,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it 
is  not  to  be  exported.  I  observe  in  the  English  papers  of 
late  that  the  packets  bring  no  specie,  or  very  little,  and  I 
suppose  that  very  soon  they  will  take  specie  to  America. 
Yet  that  will  not  reduce  the  premium  on  gold,  which  is  simply 
owing  first  to  the  enormous  inflation  of  the  currency,  and 
secondly  to  the  fear  that  with  the  prolongation  of  the  war 
and  with  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  loans  from  the  people, 
Government  will  be  compelled  to  resort  to  still  farther  in- 
flation. 

This  very  fear  it  is  which  makes  cowards  of  us  all,  and 
with  good  reason.  A  paper  dollar  is  now  worth  forty  cents. 
With  a  fresh  issue  of  currency  its  value  would  fall  to  thirty, 
twenty,  or  what  you  will,  just  as  in  the  blessed  Confederacy. 


1864.]  THE  WOMEN'S  LEAGUE.  179 

In  place  of  a  regular  and  voluntary  contribution  of  the 
people  in  the  shape  of  a  loan,  there  is  always  the  fear  faute 
de  mieux  of  this  forced  loan  in  the  shape  of  more  greenbacks. 

Now  what  is  the  remedy  for  this  ?  Plainly  a  determination 
on  the  part  of  the  people  to  economise  in  every  possible 
way,  and  to  lend  (each  individual  as  much  as  he  or  she  can 
possibly  spare)  to  the  Government,  in  tens,  fifteens,  or  fifty 
thousands.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  application  of  my 
long  parable.  The  Women's  League  might  produce  incalcu- 
lable benefit.  If  all  women  would  resolve  to  abstain  from  all 
useless  expenditure,  would  sustain  each  other  in  buying  no 
silk  gowns,  no  laces,  no  jewels,  no  luxurious  furniture,  no 
kid  gloves  at  all,  and  if  the  men  would  pledge  themselves 
to  a  similar  economy,  in  abstaining  from  all  unproductive 
consumption,  whether  of  wine,  tobacco,  horses,  or  whatever, 
and  would  agree  to  lend  each  man  or  woman  his  savings  to 
the  Government,  so  long  as  the  war  shall  last,  by  investing  in 
the  new  loans  as  fast  as  offered,  the  aggregate  thus  saved 
from  wasteful  consumption  for  the  national  exchequer  would 
be  very  considerable,  and  the  spectacle  would  be  a  very 
noble  one. 

Now  as  it  seems  to  me,  and  I  say  it  with  the  most  pro- 
found respect,  the  usefulness  of  this  League,  which  might 
produce  immense  benefit,  is  nipped  in  the  bud  by  one  fatal 
error.  As  I  understand  it,  the  women  of  America  propose 
not  so  much  to  economise  and  to  deny  themselves  luxuries 
of  dress,  furniture  and  so  on,  as  simply  to  buy  those  articles 
of  native  manufacturers,  instead  of  the  foreign  ones.  Now 
I  have  just  explained  that  the  idea  of  affecting  the  price  of 
gold  by  such  a  process  is  a  mere  delusion.  In  so  far  as  it 
means  economy  and  abstention,  the  plan  is  good,  because 
those  who  abstain  from  unproductive  consumption  will  have 
more  to  give  away,  and  we  know  how  ready  our  men  and 
our  women  are  to  give  away.  The  generosity  of  a  national 
character  was  never  exemplified  in  any  country  or  age  as 
it  has  been  in  ours  during  the  war,  and  one  is  the  more 
anxious,  therefore,  that  this  noble  sentiment  should  be  turned 
to  the  best  account.  Now  to  abstain  from  buying  a  silk 

N  2 


180  MOTLEY'S   LETTEES.  [CHAP.  V. 

gown  or  French  gloves  abroad,  and  then  to  buy  them,  not 
any  better  and  at  a  probably  higher  price,  from  a  native 
manufacturer,  is  to  become  poorer  and  to  have  the  less  to 
give  or  lend  to  Government.  You  tax  yourselves,  not  for 
your  noble  soldiers  and  sailors,  not  to  make  the  burthen  of 
the  Government  lighter,  but  simply  for  the  benefit  of  the 
native  manufacturer.  The  League  (thus  in  my  poor  opinion 
misdirected),  instead  of  accomplishing  the  noble  purpose 
which  the  leaguers  intend,  will  result  merely  in  an  advantage 
to  our  home  manufacturers  at  the  expense  of  the  people  and 
the  Government.  It  might  be  said  that  I  for  one  ought  to 
be  pleased  at  this,  as  much  of  my  property  is  invested  in 
manufactures,  but  that  I  believe  is  a  consideration  foreign 
from  the  nature  of  every  honest  man  in  America. 

How  I  wish  some  one  or  other  would  take  the  lead  in  some 
such  movement  as  this  suggested :  a  woman's  League  to  wear 
calicoes  and  cotton  stockings,  and  to  lend  all  their  surplus 
savings  to  Government.  But  to  attempt  affecting  the  market 
quotation  of  gold,  by  buying  the  American  fabrics  instead  of 
foreign  ones  is,  as  I  have  already  hinted,  like  attempting 
to  regulate  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  which  is  governed 
by  an  immutable  law.  So  far  as  it  accomplishes  anything 
as  at  present  arranged  I  should  think  it  would  make  people 
less  able  to  help  Government  in  its  need.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  silks,  gloves,  laces,  and  so  on,  are  manufactured 
much  cheaper  in  Europe  than  in  America.  Therefore,  if 
they  are  to  be  bought  at  all,  they  should  be  bought  where 
they  are  cheapest,  if  unproductive  consumption  is  to  be  kept 
within  any  limits.  I  have  said  all  this  because  the  subject 
interests  me  deeply.  But  I  need  not  warn  you  to  be  very 
modest,  backward  even,  in  expressing  these  opinions  or  quoting 
them  as  mine.  They  are  not  mine.  They  are  simply  derived 
by  me,  as  one  of  their  humblest  and  least  accomplished 
disciples,  from  the  teachings  of  Adam  Smith,  John  Stuart 
Mill,  and  the  other  great  thinkers  on  the  most  important 
subject  of  the  age.  I  have  no  objection  to  your  occasionally 
reading  what  I  have  thus  said  to  those  who  from  old  friend- 
ship will  look  with  indulgence  on  what  I  thus  say  from 


1864.]  PEACE  CONFERENCES  AT  VIENNA.  181 

patriotism  and  with  the  most  perfect  respect  for  and  sympathy 
with  the  noble  women  to  whom  our  country  is  so  much  indebted 
ever  since  the  war  began.  I  would  go  on  much  longer,  but 
this  is  a  letter  not  a  treatise.  God  bless  you,  my  darling. 
Give  my  love  to  your  dear  grandmamma,  Aunt  Annie,  and  the 
whole  family.  Ever  thine  affectionately, 

J.  L.  M, 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
September  13th,  1864. 

MY  DEAEEST  MOTHER, — It  is  a  dreary,  rainy  day,  one  of 
about  eighty-two  or  three  out  of  which  our  ninety  days  of 
so-called  summer  have  been  composed.  Now,  having  got  into 
autumn,  and  having  given  up  the  summer  to  its  fate,  we  are 
not  getting  on  any  better.  I  only  wish  we  could  export  some  of 
our  early  and  latter  rain  from  this  country  to  America,  where 
it  seems  from  all  I  can  learn  that  you  are  having  it  hot  and 
dry,  and  that  the  crops  and  the  armies  are  suffering.  I  can't 
say  that  I  have  much  of  interest  to  talk  about  here.  We  had 
a  few  of  our  diplomatic  colleagues  to  dinner  last  Saturday,  and 
to-day  we  are  to  drive  out  to  Weidlingau,  an  hour's  distance, 
to  dine  with  the  Bloomfields,  and  I  wish  that  it  was  not  to  be 
a  rainy  drive,  instead  of  a  mild  and  moon-lit  one,  which 'it 
ought  to  be. 

These  are  about  all  the  private  incidents,  and  the  dearth  of 
public  ones  is  about  as  great.  The  peace  conferences  between 
the  Danish  plenipotentiaries  (poor  victims !)  on  one  side  and 
the  Austrians  and  Prussians  on  the  other  go  on  very  slowly ; 
but  I  don't  suppose  you  take  a  feverish  interest  in  their  pro- 
ceedings, and  1  am  sure  that  I  don't.  If  I  had  even  the  least 
reverence  for  red  tape,  which  is  not  the  case,  it  would  have 
evaporated  in  the  course  of  four  years  of  a  foreign  mission. 
Certainly,  if  any  lessons  were  wanted  in  the  art  of  how  not  to 
do  it,  the  world  has  received  them  in  plenty  these  two  years 
past  from  the  big-wigs  of  the  Great  Powers,  who  flatter  them- 
selves that  they  direct  the  course  of  events,  when  they  hardly 
even  see,  much  less  comprehend  it. 


182  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

The  news  from  America  received  by  telegraph  to-day,  if 
true,  is  very  important.  It  is  announced  that  Atlanta  has 
been  occupied  by  our  forces,  and  that  Fort  Morgan  has  been 
surrendered.  I  trust  that  the  former  is  not  a  false  report.  In 
regard  to  the  latter,  I  am  not  anxious,  because  it  has  been 
obvious  from  the  beginning  that  Morgan  could  not  long  be 
held. 

The  other  announcement,  that  McClellan  had  received  the 
nomination  at  Chicago  was  also  expected.  It  has  seemed 
certain  that  this  would  be  the  result  for  some  time  past.  I 
don't  conceal  from  myself  that  he  is  the  most  formidable  can- 
didate that  the  pro-slavery  party  could  have  selected,  and 
they  are  wise  in  having  thrown  the  peace-at-any-price  party 
overboard.  I  had  hoped  or  tried  to  hope  that  they  would  have 
selected  a  Submissionist  out  and  out,  like  Vallandingham  or 
Seymour,  but  they  were  not  quite  such  fools  as  that.  They 
knew,  that  the  People  would  have  rejected  any  such  candidate 
with  disgust,  and  such  a  nomination  would  have  ensured  the 
election  of  Lincoln.  I  admit  that  there  is  considerable  danger 
of  McClellan's  election,  and  the  very  possibility  of  such  a 
catastrophe  fills  me  with  unspeakable  melancholy.  I  don't 
know  how  I  could  face  such  a  terrible  result  to  these  four  past 
years  of  progress.  I  don't  mean  anything  in  regard  to  him 
personally.  In  himself  he  is  nothing.  No  individual  is  any- 
thing in  the  midst  of  this  great  revolution.  As  a  military 
man  he  is,  I  suppose,  a  very  good  civil  engineer;  but  even 
had  the  Chicago  convention  nominated  a  general  immeasurably 
his  superior — had  they  persuaded  Grant  or  Sherman  to  bid  for 
the  candidacy,  and  had  they  nominated  either,  I  should  have 
been  still  more  unhappy,  because  the  chances  of  their  election 
would  have  been  still  greater  than  are  those  of  McClellan. 

If  after  these  four  years  of  bloodshed,  the  like  of  which  the 
world  has  rarely  seen,  but  during  which  the  People  has  gone 
with  such  gigantic  steps  towards  the  extirpation  of  the  in- 
stitution which  has  caused  all  our  misery — if  after  all  these 
terrible  but  still  sublime  years,  the  People  is  capable  of  abasing 
itself  in  the  very  moment  when  its  ultimate  triumph  seems 
certain,  and  of  re-establishing  slavery  just  as  it  is  under  foot 


1864.]  McCLELLAN'S  CANDID ATUKE.  183 

and  waiting  to  receive  the  coup  de  grace,  then  indeed  must  one 
have  cause  almost  to  despair  of  human  progress  on  this  earth. 

That  this  mighty  revolution  is  to  be  stopped  in  mid-career 
by  the  politicians  assembled  at  Chicago  is  what  my  reason 
forbids  me  to  believe  beforehand.  If  it  does  become  a  fact, 
which  you  will  know  on  the  2nd  day  of  November,  and  I  on 
the  13th  or  14th,  why  I  shall  try  to  bear  it  with  as  much  forti- 
tude as  I  may,  taking  consolation  in  the  conviction  that  the 
pro-slavery  party  (alas  that  such  a  thing  should  exist  in  the 
Free  States  of  America)  will  find  it  difficult  to  accomplish  its 
ends.  The  slaveholders  know  that  the  heart  of  the  North  is 
anti-slavery,  and  that  although  a  weariness  of  the  war  may 
possibly  bring  about  a  temporary  reconstruction  of  the  Union 
on  the  slavery  basis,  it  could  not  guarantee  the  existence  of 
slavery  beyond  a  very  brief  period.  Therefore  the  result  of 
McClellan's  election  will  be,  I  think,  to  prolong  the  war  very 
much. 

This  is  the  way  I  regard  the  election  of  McClellan  and  its 
inevitable  results.  My  principal  hope  of  the  success  of. the 
Kepublican  party  is  founded  on  military  success.  I  admit 
that  a  great  disaster  to  our  armies  would  probably  be  fatal  to 
Mr.  Lincoln's  chance ;  therefore  the  McClellan  party  are  all 
looking  forward  with  eager  hope  to  a  national  disaster. 

Well,  I  have  said  my  say,  I  am  intensely  anxious  but 
hopeful.  New  Yx>rk  and  Pennsylvania  may  vote  for  McClellan, 
but  New  England  and  Ohio  and  all  the  North- West  will  go  for 
Lincoln,  and  if  so  he  will  be  elected. 

However,  this  is  idle  talk.  The  votes  in  all  the  great  States 
are  so  evenly  balanced,  according  to  the  latest  statistics,  that 
one  must  fall  back  on  general  principles,  and  on  those  and  on 
the  chance  of  victories  by  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Farragut  I 
found  my  hopes.  Mary  and  little  Mary  join  me  in  love 
to  you,  my  dearest  mother,  and  to  Annie  and  all  at  home. 
Susie  is  making  a  long  visit  to  the  Ayllons  at  Voslau. 

Good-bye,  and  God  bless  you. 

Believe  me,  your  ever  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


184  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  V. 


To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
Tuesday,  September  27tli,  1864. 

MY  DEAEEST  LILY, — I  am  writing  you  a  hurried  note  this 
morning  at  7  o'clock  merely  that  you  may  have  a  line  by  the 
steamer  to  say  that  we  are  all  well.  I  can  absolutely  do  no 
more,  for  I  leave  by  a  railroad  (how  I  hate  railroads,  and  how 
I  hope  that  the  punishment  of  the  man  who  invented  them 
may  be  to  wait  for  ever  and  ever  through  all  eternity  in  a 
salle  d'attente  with  a  lot  of  frowsy  travellers  for  a  train  that  is 
always  about  to  start  and  never  does)  in  about  an  hour. 

Yesterday  morning  I  left  Wischenau,  the  chateau  of  Count 
Spiegel,  at  an  early  hour  by  a  post-chaise,  travelled  three  hours 
to  the  station  ;  then  came  in  three  hours'  rail  to  Vienna. 

Nothing  could  be  more  charming  than  the  Spiegels,  one  and 
all.  We  went  down  last  Saturday,  arrived  there  at  9  P.M. 
The  weather  was  a  deluge  at  starting,  but  kindly  assuaged  at 
sunset.  The  Sunday  was  passed  in  going  all  over  the  estate, 
which  is  a  very  fine  one.  He  has  about  four  thousand  acres 
under  the  plough,  divided  into  four  great  farms  with  as  many 
villages,  and  about  as  much  more  woodland  and  pastures.  I 
went  into  peasants'  houses,  stewards'  houses,  farmers'  houses, 
and  asked  questions  by  the  thousand,  like  a  youthful  traveller 
improving  his  mind. 

But  I  shan't  give  you  all  the  information  I  derived,  because 
there  isn't  time  now,  and  because  I  shall  forget  it  all  before  I 
do  have  any. 

Suffice  it  to  say  that  a  day  labourer  gets  from  15  to  20 
kreutzers  per  day  when  employed,  and  can  generally  have 
employment  most  of  the  year.  Consequently  by  hard  working 
he  can  earn  about  thirty-five  dollars  a  year.  No  wonder  the 
poor  creatures  emigrate  when  they  have  a  chance  to  a  country 
where  they  can  earn  as  much  in  a  fortnight  as  in  their  own 
diggings  in  a  year.  The  farmhouses  are  clean.  The  better 
part  of  the  peasant  proprietors  seem  contented  enough,  and 
very  well  off.  In  one  which  I  visited,  where  the  farm  was  of 
about  thirty  acres,  there  was  good  furniture  and  much  neat- 


1864.]  THE  AUSTRIAN  PEASANTRY.  185 

ness.  There  are  many  peasant  proprietors,  but  the  farms  are 
not  indefinitely  divided.  The  eldest  son,  as  in  all  Austria 
(where  it  is  not  a  Majorats  Gut),  takes  one-half,  while  the 
other  half  is  divided  among  all  the  brothers  and  sisters,  him- 
self included.  But  the  eldest  retains  the  property,  and  the 
portions  of  the  rest  are  charged  upon  the  estate. 

It  is  a  fertile  country,  producing  all  kinds  of  grain  and 
much  fruit.  The  peaches  are  good,  and  figs  ripen  very  well 
in  the  open  air,  although  in  winter  they  have  on  an  average 
two  months'  sleighing,  and  the  cold  is  sometimes  as  low  as 
20°  or  25°  below  zero  of  Fahrenheit. 

The  chateau  is  a  large  quadrangular  structure  of  the  last 
century — white-washed  and  commodious — with  rooms  for  forty 
guests  at  least.  The  "  keeping  "  rooms  are  elegant  and  home- 
like, and  I  am  sure  no  family  in  the  world,  not  even  in 
England,  has  more  genuine,  frank,  and  delightful  hospitality. 
Countess  Spiegel,  as  you  know,  is  a  very  well-instructed  and 
most  agreeable  woman,  and  he  is  kindness  personified.  The 
girls  you  know  better  than  I  do 

I  must  stop.  It  is  going  to  rain  of  course,  and  I  am  about 
to  start  on  a  tour  of  pleasure.  When  I  am  very  happy  at 
home  and  miserable  abroad  I  am  cense  to  require  change  of 
air,  and  I  travel  for  my  health,  although  in  truth  I  bear 
myself  like  the  new  bridge.  If  I  wasn't  afraid  I  would  back 
out  at  the  last  moment.  Meanwhile  Lippitt  and  I  go  off 
together  for  a  fortnight  to  Gmunden,  Ischl,  Innsbruck,  Yerona, 
Venice,  Trieste.  I  feel  sure  that  something  will  turn  up 
requiring  my  presence  during  my  absence.  God  bless  you, 
dear  child.  Love  to  dear  grandmamma. 

Ever  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Us  Mother. 

Vienna, 
October  12th,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER,  —  I  haven't  written  very  lately 
because  I  have  been  absent  on  a  little  tour  of  about  a  fort- 
night. There  was  a  theory  that  my  health  required  change 


186  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

of  air,  and  so  I  started  with  Mr.  Lippitt,  went  to  Gmunden 
and  Ischl,  the  latter  a  famous  summer  place  for  the  Vienna 
people.  It  is  about  ten  hours'  railroad  journey  from  the 
capital,  and  is  certainly  a  very  beautiful  place,  a  meeting 
together  of  three  or  four  valleys,  fertile,  sylvan  and  pic- 
turesque— enclosed  on  all  sides  by  magnificent  mountain 
chains,  with  some  peaks  high  enough  to  have  snow  upon  them 
all  the  year.  Thence  we  took  a  carriage  drive  to  Salzburg,  a 
city  which  has  probably  the  most  magnificent  situation  of  any 
town  of  so  large  a  size  in  the  world,  the  Styrian  Alps,  as  fine 
as  any  mountain  scenery  out  of  Switzerland,  stretching  outside 
the  city  walls  in  all  directions,  and  inclosing  the  picturesque 
town,  and  the  broad  and  luxuriant  plain  of  the  Salzach  in 
which  it  lies,  with  the  remarkable  fortress  on  a  precipitous 
mountain  rising  in  the  very  heart  of  the  place.  But  I  think 
you  have  been  at  Salzburg  yourself.  I  shall  only  add,  there- 
fore, that  we  went  from  Salzburg  to  Innsbruck,  thence  across 
the  Brenner  Pass  to  Bolzano  and  Verona,  and  so  to  Venice, 
where  we  stopped  two  or  three  days.  It  is  a  delight  to  be  in 
Venice,  which  is  always  a  dream-city  to  me,  and  I  have  never 
been  there  long  enough  at  a  time  to  have  its  poetry  turned 
into  prose.  But  I  won't  prose  myself  on  the  subject,  and  shall 
simply  add  that  after  I  had  made  satisfactory  arrangements 
with  a  literary  gentleman  there,  who,  by  a  curious  coincidence 
was  just  about  writing  to  me  for  authority  to  publish  an  Italian 
translation  of  my  works,  and  who  has  undertaken  to  superin- 
tend certain  researches  which  I  am  making  by  deputy  in  the 
Venetian  archives  for  my  future  volumes,  we  returned  by  easy 
stages  to  Vienna. 

My  health  is  perfectly  good  since  my  journey,  which  is  the 
less  remarkable  as  it  was  perfectly  good  before. 

However,  I  am  glad  on  the  whole  to  have  taken  the  tour, 
although  I  hate  travelling  more  and  more  every  year  that  I 
live.  The  morning  after  my  return,  day  before  yesterday,  I 
was  invited  to  a  family  breakfast  at  the  Prince  Augustus  of 
Coburg's.  He  is  married,  as  Lily  will  tell  you,  to  one  of  the 
daughters  of  King  Louis  Philippe  of  France,1  and  resides  here. 

1  The  Princess  Clementine, 


1864.]  THE   COMTE  DE  PARIS.  187 

It  is  a  pleasant  house,  where  there  are  often  dinners  and 
evening  parties  in  the  winter.  The  Princess  is  most  charming, 
amiable  and  intelligent,  like  all  the  members  of  her  family 
whom  I  have  ever  known.  The  reason  of  my  being  invited  on 
this  occasion  was  that  the  Count  of  Paris,  whom  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  knowing  in  London  a  few  years  ago,  was  kind 
enough  to  wish  to  see  me  again.  He  is  here  with  his  bride, 
daughter  of  his  uncle,  the  Due  de  Montpensier.  The  Duchesse 
de  Montpensier  is  sister  to  the  Queen  of  Spain,  and  the  com- 
pany at  breakfast  consisted  only  of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of 
Coburg,  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Montpensier,  the  Count 
and  Countess  of  Paris,  the  son  and  daughter  of  our  host,  one 
or  two  gentlemen  and  ladies  in  waiting,  and  my  colleague  and 
friend  Mr.  d'Ayllon,  the  Spanish  Minister,  who  looked  rather 
mystified  at  seeing  me  at  this  little  family  party.  I  sat  next 
to  the  Count  of  Paris,  whom  I  remembered  as  a  young  man 
of  much  intellect,  but  I  found  him  still  more  improved,  and 
I  venture  to  pronounce  him  almost  a  model  of  what  a  young 
Prince  ought  to  be  in  manner,  in  character,  in  conversation,  in 
accomplishments.  To  be  sure  he  bribed  me  by  his  unaffected, 
sincere,  and  enthusiastic  interest  in  my  country.  A  more 
loyal  and  ardent  American  does  not  exist  than  this  King's  son. 
It  was  really  refreshing  to  me  in  this  isolation  of  mine  to  be 
able  to  talk  and  to  listen  with,  and  to  a  man  who  understood 
the  American  subject  as  well  as  I  do,  and  whose  sympathies 
were  so  quick,  so  spontaneous,  so  frankly  expressed.  He  has 
done  himself  honour  by  the  personal  gallantry  which  he 
displayed  in  the  campaigns  of  1862,  but  he  is  still  more 
interesting  to  me  by  the  clear  and  simple  way  in  which  he 
looks  through  and  through  our  great  revolution,  over  the 
causes  and  the  certain  results  of  which  passion,  ignorance,  and 
malice  have  spread  such  a  veil  to  the  European  mind. 

You  will  say  that  I  took  so  much  pleasure  in  his  conver- 
sation because  he  agreed  entirely  with  my  own  opinions  and 
sentiments,  and  that  I  consider  him  so  intelligent  and  so  true 
for  that  reason.  Well,  perhaps  I  do,  for  I  have  long  since 
thrown  off  any  mock-modesty  on  this  great  topic.  About 
many  matters  I  am  inclined  to  be  dubious,  sceptical,  hesi- 


188  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

tating.  On  this  great  American  question  of  ours,  the  most 
vital  debate  of  this  century,  I  know  I  am  right,  and  refuse  to 
admit  the  possibility  of  my  opponents  being  otherwise  than 
utterly  and  hopelessly  wrong.  But  I  believe  that  the  verdict 
of  the  American  people  in  November  will  show  that  my 
opinions  and  sentiments  are  shared  by  many  millions  of  my 
countrymen,  a  vast  majority  of  the  population  of  the  loyal 
States. 

I  don't  doubt  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  basis  of 
the  anti-slavery  amendment  of  the  constitution  and  a  prosecu- 
tion of  the  war.  If  these  sacrifices,  endured  so  nobly  by  the 
American  people,  are  not  to  have  for  their  fruit  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  infernal  institution  which  made  the  war  and  the 
rebellion,  and  which  has  been  the  only  thing  that  has  ever 
endangered  the  Union,  then  the  demons  in  the  infernal 
regions,  or  in  Kichmond,  may  laugh  at  the  gigantic  folly  of 

this  four  years'  war 

J.  L.  M, 


To  his  Mother. 

Vienna, 
October  21st,  1864. 

MY  DEAREST  MOTHER, —  Lily  reports  you  as  on  the  whole 
as  well  as  usual,  and  I  pray  Heaven  she  may  continue  to  tell 
us  the  same  story.  Our  life  has  been  externally  pretty  quiet, 
and  I  have  been  able  to  do  a  good  spell  of  work  on  my  History. 
Vol.  III.  is  done,  and  part  of  Yol.  IV.  Meantime  I  am  laying 
down  the  framework  and  preparing  the  materials  for  a  History 
of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  It  will  take  me  rather  longer  to 
write  it  than  it  did  the  actors  in  it  to  fight  it,  and  as  I  don't 
expect  to  live  through  the  whole  of  this  century,  it  will 
probably  be  left  to  my  successors  to  complete  it. 

It  seems  almost  like  sacrilege  for  an  American  to  write  on 
any  other  subject  than  that  of  our  own  great  struggle.  Cer- 
tainly there  has  never  been  in  the  world's  history  so  great  an 
encounter  of  principles,  so  vast  a  display  of  human  passions, 
so  many  touching  episodes,  nor  ever  so  sublime  a  moral.  It 


1864.]  THE  PRATER— THE  OPERA.  189 

will  be  for  another  generation  to  deal  with  this  great  subject. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  contemporaries  to  obtain  the  neces- 
sary and  indispensable  materials,  and  perhaps  difficult  for 
them  to  be  sufficiently  dispassionate.  But  the  writer  is  to  be 
envied  who  in  later  days  will  undertake  this  magnificent 
theme.  All  other  struggles  that  have  ever  taken  place 
between  the  spirits  of  human  liberty  and  despotism  pale 
before  it. 

I  am  ever  your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
October  27th,  1864. 

I  like  to  show  that  I  am  capable  of  even  a  pretence  of 
payment  for  all  the  delightful  letters  we  get  from  you.  I  am 
always  afraid  of  the  regularity  with  which  they  come,  lest  ere 
long  they  may  cease  for  lack  of  material.  I  am  in  such  a  rage 
at  the  rain  that  stopped  you  from  going  to  the  front  that  I 
can't  trust  myself  to  speak  on  the  subject.  .  .  .  Well,  I  will 
try  not  to  gnash  my  teeth  any  more,  particularly  as  Dr.  North 
has  gone  to  the  South  for  the  winter. 

Of  course,  I  have  no  lack  of  topics  to  amuse  you  with.  I 
went  to  the  Prater  yesterday.  As  your  mamma  had  a  bad 
cold,  I  promenaded  my  ennuis  and  likewise  the  two  girls  in 
that  place  of  resort,  which  I  rarely  frequent  in  person.  Being 
holiday,  the  beggars'  shops  were  shut,  so  that  they  thronged 
the  Prater,  where,  therefore,  there  was  an  absence  of  swells. 
Then  there  is  the  Opera.  Last  night  I  went  in  solemn  state 
to  the  Karntner  Thor  alone.  Your  mother  I  forbade  to  go 
out.  The  two  girls  went  to  a  " Comtessen  soiree"  The  piece 
was  a  new  one — *  Don  Juan ' — by  a  composer  called  Mozart. 
There  has  been  a  pause  in  the  whirl  of  one  party  a  week — the 
Gramonts'  soirees  are  over.  I  grow  more  amusing  than  ever 
when  I  go  into  company.  "  On  voit  lien  que  le  monde  Viennois 
est  de  retour  dans  les  foyers ! "  This  striking  remark  I 
made  to  every  person  with  whom  I  had  the  honour  of  con- 


190  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

versing  at  the  last  soiree.  .  .  .  The  children  want  me  to  take 
a  box  at  the  Karl  Theatre,  to  see  an  operetta  called  '  Die 
schonen  Weiber  von  Georgien.'  I  am  just  now  more  in- 
terested in  the  success  of  the  piece  which  Sherman  is  pro- 
ducing in  Georgia.  Our  last  accounts  leave  him  in  battle 
array  five  miles  from  Savannah.  If  he  should  come  to  grief, 
I  am  awfully  ill  prepared  for  it ;  for  I  have  so  much  confidence 
in  his  luck  and  pluck  that  I  have  got  to  thinking  him  in- 
vincible. However,  I  won't  talk  of  American  matters.  My 
mind  is  in  other  things !  Besides  the  Prater  and  the  Kiirntner 

Thor,  and  the  Karl  Theatre,  have  we  not ?     That  star 

which  shot  so  madly  from  its  sphere  a  year  and  a  half  ago 
has  just  risen  again  above  our  horizon,  and  proposes  to  shed 
its  mild  planetary  lustre  over  Vienna  for  an  indefinite  period. 
He  arrived  before  Christmas,  and  dined  with  us  on  that  festive 
occasion,  with  the  Lippitts  and  Consul  Thayer.  You  are 
aware,  of  course,  that  the  lictors  with  their  fasces  await  the 
latter  on  his  arrival  at  Trieste,  whither  he  departed  this 
morning.  .  .  . 

We  are  yet,  of  course,  without  a  word  as  to  the  election, 
which  took  place  just  a  week  ago.  In  order  not  to  lose  this 
last  opportunity  of  "  Don't  never  prophesy  unless  you  know," 
I  hasten  to  say  that  McClellan  only  got  the  electoral  votes  of 
New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Oregon,  and 
that  Abraham  got  all  the  rest.  We  shall  not  get  the  news 
until  next  Sunday  or  Monday.  The  advantage  of  my  recording 
this  prophecy  is  in  the  fact  that  you  will  have  the  comfort  of 
seeing  how  tremendously  I  have  written  myself  down  an  ass, 
in  case  when  you  have  these  artless  lines  the  young  Napoleon 
has  really  been  elected.  .  .  . 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
November  23rd,  1864. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — I  must  write  you  a  line  by  this  steamer. 
Your  mother  wrote  yesterday  (Tuesday),  and  this  goes  via 
Queenstown  by  the  same  steamer.  I  wish  you  would  remember 


1861.]  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.  191 

when  you  write  to  state  whether  both  letters  reached  you  the 
same  day. 

I  thought  that  I  should  have  much  to  say  about  the  result 
of  the  election.  But  I  am,  as  it  were,  struck  dumb.  The 
more  than  realisation  of  my  highest  hopes  leaves  me  with  no 
power  of  expression  except  to  repeat  over  and  over  again — 

"  O  Grosser  Gott,  im  Staube  danke  ich  dir." 

When  I  contemplate  now  the  mere  possibility,  if  it  ever 
had  existed,  of  McClellan's  election,  I  shudder  with  horror 
at  the  depth  of  the  abyss  into  which  we  might  have  been 
plunged.  But  as  I  have  told  you  whenever  I  have  written, 
and  as  I  have  always  said  to  every  one  here,  that  possibility 
never  did  seem  to  me  to  exist. 

I  used  to  go  over  the  records  of  the  votings  of  the  last  four 
years  in  every  State,  and  I  never  could  twist  out  of  them,  by 
any  sophistry,  a  doubt  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  re-election.  Before 
the  State  elections  in  October,  I  felt  nervous  about  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  knowing  that  the  soldiers  were  not  allowed  to 
vote  there,  and  knowing  that  in  1860  Lincoln  only  obtained  a 
meagre  majority  in  each  of  those  States.  Since  the  Indiana 
vote  in  October,  a  triumphant  result  has  seemed  to  me  quite 
as  sure  as  it  does  now,  while  I  was  always  persuaded  that  even 
should  McClellan  contrive  to  wriggle  into  a  majority  in  one 
or  two  of  the  large  States,  like  New  York  or  Pennsylvania,  it 
could  not  save  him. 

But  as  you  know  by  a  recent  letter  of  mine,  a  note  slipped 
into  Mary's  letter,  I  at  least  was  convinced  that  New  Jersey, 
Kentucky,  the  most  magnanimous  and  peaceful  State  of  Dela- 
ware, and  perhaps  Missouri,  would  be  all  that  would  not  vote 
for  Lincoln.  The  telegraph  informed  us  yesterday  morning 
that  all  the  States  but  the  above-mentioned  three  (Kentucky, 
Delaware,  and  New  Jersey)  had  gone  for  Lincoln.  As  the 
telegraph  very  rarely  has  been  known  to  lie  on  our  side,  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  it.  I  don't  know  why  I  am  saying  so  much 
about  my  own  impressions  and  feelings,  especially  on  an  occa- 
sion when  no  individual  is  of  much  consequence.  I  certainly 
should  not  do  so  to  any  one  but  you,  but  I  cannot  describe 


192  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V. 

the  effect  and  the  moral  of  the  presidential  election  except 
by  marking  the  emotions  which  it  has  excited  within  my  own 
microcosm. 

Throughout  this  great  war  of  principle  I  have  been  sus- 
tained by  one  great  faith,  my  belief  in  democracy.  The 
American  people  has  never  known  a  feudal  superior,  in  perfect 
good  faith  and  simplicity  has  always  felt  itself  to  be  sovereign 
over  its  whole  territory,  and  because  for  a  long  period  it 
allowed  itself  to  be  led  by  the  nose,  without  observing  it,  by 
a  kind  of  sham  aristocracy,  which  had  developed  itself  out  of 
the  slave-dealing  system  of  the  South,  it  was  thought  to  have 
lost  all  its  virtue,  all  its  energy,  and  all  its  valour.  The 
People  did  not  fairly  realise  for  a  long  time  that  this  doughty 
aristocracy  of  the  cotton  planters  intended  to  revolt  against 
the  sovereignty  of  the  People.  The  People  were  wonderfully 
naift  good-humoured,  astonished,  and  placable,  for  it  took  them 
a  long  time  to  understand  that  the  rebellion  was  actually 
against  popular  sovereignty. 

But  when  the  object  of  the  great  conspiracy  was  fairly 
revealed,  I  suppose  that  no  despotic  monarch  that  ever  lived, 
not  Charles  V.  nor  Louis  XIY.  nor  the  Czar  Nicholas  was 
ever  more  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  necessity  of  putting 
down  the  insurrection  of  serfs  or  subjects  than  was  the  Ameri- 
can Demos.  As  to  doubting  its  power  to  do  this,  such  a  sen- 
timent has  never  entered  my  head.  The  democratic  principle 
is  potent  even  in  Europe,  where  it  only  exists  in  solution  and 
in  hidden  and  mutually  neutralising  combinations  with  other 
elements.  In  America  it  is  omnipotent,  and  I  have  always 
felt  that  the  slave  power  has  undertaken  a  task  which  is  not 
difficult  but  impossible.  I  don't  use  this  as  a  figure  of 
speech ;  I  firmly  believe  that  the  democratic  principle  is  as 
immovable  and  absolute  a  fact  upon  our  soil  (not  to  change 
its  appearance  until  after  some  long  processes  of  cause  and 
effect,  the  beginnings  of  which  for  centuries  to  come  cannot 
even  be  imagined)  as  any  of  its  most  marked  geological 
and  geographical  features,  and  that  is  as  much  a  necessary 
historical  and  philosophical  result  as  they  are. 

For  one,  I  like  democracy.     I  don't  say  that  it  is  pretty  or 


186i.]  THE  AMERICAN   DEMOCRACY.  193 

genteel  or  jolly.  But  it  has  a  reason  for  existing,  and  is  a 
fact  in  America,  and  is  founded  on  the  immutable  principle 
of  reason  and  justice.  Aristocracy  certainly  presents  more 
brilliant  social  phenomena,  more  luxurious  social  enjoyments. 
Such  a  system  is  very  cheerful  for  a  few  thousand  select 
specimens  out  of  the  few  hundred  millions  of  the  human  race. 
It  has  been  my  lot  and  yours  to  see  how  much  splendour,  how 
much  intellectual  and  physical  refinement,  how  much  enjoy- 
ment of  the  highest  character  has  been  created  by  the  English 
aristocracy ;  but  what  a  price  is  paid  for  it.  Think  of  a  human 
being  working  all  day  long,  from  six  in  the  morning  to  seven 
at  night,  for  fifteen  or  twenty  kreutzers  a  day  in  Moravia  or 
Bohemia,  Ireland  or  Yorkshire,  for  forty  or  fifty  years,  to  die 
in  the  workhouse  at  last !  This  is  the  lot  of  the  great  majority 
all  over  Europe ;  and  yet  they  are  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood, 
the  natural  equals  in  every  way  of  the  Howards  and  Stanleys, 
Esterhazys  and  Liechtensteins. 

I  never  can  write  a  letter  without  turning  it  into  a  philo- 
sophical lecture,  very  learned  and  profound,  no  doubt,  but 
consumedly  dull.  Let  me  break  off  at  once  and  tell  you 
whatever  facts  there  may  be.  The  Liberal  papers  have  had, 
all  of  them,  enthusiastic  leading  articles  yesterday  morning; 
about  the  election.  Especially  the  New  Freie  Presse,  which 
has  been  started  since  you  went  away  by  seceders  from  the 
old  Presse,  was  ablaze  with  excitement.  As  it  is  the  most 
Liberal,  so  it  is  the  most  philo- American  paper  in  Germany, 
and  it  is  written  with  great  talent.  Not  one  of  the  official  or 
semi-official  papers  have  even  alluded  to  the  subject.  Their 
silence  is  very  amusing  to  me.  Mr.  d'Ayllon  came  up  the 

evening  of  the  news  with  B ,  and  was  most  warm  in  his 

congratulations.  No  other  of  "  my  little  companions,"  as 
Susie  calls  the  dips,  has  called  on  me,  or  will  do  so. 

The  famille  d'Ayllon  and  Heckeren  dine  with  us  to-day, 
and  they  will  drink  the  honest  President's  health  with  pleasure, 
so  that  Spain,  Holland,  and  the  United  States  of  America  will 
have  a  funny  entente  cordiale. 

To-night  there  is  a  reception  at  the  Gramonts',  and  we  are 
screwing  ourselves  up  to  give  a  friendly  swarry  for  all  the  dips 

VOL.  II.  O 


194  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  V. 

and  such  of  the  Viennese  as  are  in  town.     Don't  we  wish  you 
were  here. 

Pray  give  our  kindest  and  warmest  and  tenderest  regards 
to  Mrs.  Wadsworth.  Don't  ever  forget  also  our  very  best 
remembrances  to  our  old  friend  Mr.  Austin.  I  am  so  glad  to 
hear  that  he  is  so  staunch  in  the  cause. 

Give  our  best  love  to  your  dear  grandmamma  and  all  at 
home. 

Ever,  my  dear  child, 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


To  Ms  Mother. 

Vienna, 
December  27th,  1864. 

MY  DEAKtfST  MOTHER, — "  My  days  are  with  the  dead,"  as 
Kobert  Southey  says,  and  I  find  the  dead  men  much  more 
lively  companions  than  many  I  meet  with  Avhen  I  go  out 
into  what  is  called  life.  Fortunately  I  have  very  little 
public  business,  so  little  that  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  take  a 
salary  for  doing  it.  At  the  same  time,  as  the  said  salary 
doesn't  pay  much  more  than  half  my  necessary  expenses  as 
representative  of  the  Great  Kepublic,  I  have  the  less  com- 
punction on  the  subject.  I  consider  it  a  sacred  duty  at 
exactly  this  period  in  our  affairs  that  a  Minister  of  the  United 
States  should  not  live  less  respectably  than  the  envoys  of  the 
smallest  German  duchies,  and  accept  hospitalities  such  as 
they  are  from  their  colleagues  and  rendering  none  in  return. 

There  is  a  pause  just  now  in  the  Vienna  society  as  'usual  at 
this  season.  The  peg-top  is  set  up  in  the  early  days  of 
January,  and  all  the  world  will  be  whipping  it  for  the  sixty 
days  of  carnival.  This  sounds  very  fine,  but  in  point  of 
fact  there  is  far  less  gaiety  in  this  capital  than  in  almost 
any  other,  that  is  to  say,  of  gaiety  in  which  the  upper  class 
participates. 

The  weather  is  cold  and  clear.  At  the  beginning  of  this 
month  there  fell  about  six  inches  of  snow,  and  it  still  lies 


1864.]  WINTER  IN  VIENNA.  195 

unmelted  and  unsullied  in  our  garden,  although  they  take  it 
away  from  the  streets  as  soon  as  it  falls,  and  sleighs  are 
unknown  in  the  town,  although  plenty  in  the  Prater.  The 
winter  climate  here  is  rather  a  puzzle  to  me.  Thus  for  the 
last  ten  days  we  have  had  the  thermometer  ranging  from  8  or 
9  degrees  of  Fahrenheit  to  25.  In  the  day  time  it  has  rarely 
been  above  the  freezing  point  since  the  beginning  of  the 
month.  Yet  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  the  same  world  of  snow 
and  frost  and  prodigious  icicles,  such  mighty  masses  of  white 
granite  as  our  Boston  winter  creates.  I  begin  to  believe  that 
it  is  the  heat  of  our  winter  that  is  to  blame — those  few  hours 
a  day  of  intense  sunshine  which  turns  snow  into  water,  followed 
by  a  midnight  which  metamorphoses  it  into  marble  again. 
You  see  I  am  getting  to  drivel,  for  here  I  am  deliberately 
talking  of  the  weather. 

Well,  unless  I  talk  of  Maurice  of  Nassau  and  Oldenbarne- 
veld,  I  can  think  just  now  of  no  more  lively  matter.  I 
am  determined  I  won't  say  a  word  about  American  affairs 
to-day. 

Mary  has  been  treating  herself  to  a  severe  cold,  but  is 
better,  I  am  glad  to  say,  this  morning.  The  two  girls  are  well 
and  so  am  I.  We  all  send  you  an  ocean  of  love  and  good 
wishes,  and  pray  you  to  distribute  as  much  of  it  as  you  choose 
to  all  the  family. 

Ever,  my  dearest  mother, 

Your  most  affectionate  son, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  J.  E.  Lowell 

Cambridge, 
December  28th,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — Here  I  am  again,  undismayed  as  a  fly 
which,  though  brushed  away  again  and  again,  insists  on  making 
his  perch  on  the  tip  of  your  ambassadorial  nose.  The  North 
American  has  changed  hands,  and  .begins  the  new  year  with 
"Ticknor  and  Fields"  on  its  title-page.  Fields  wishes  to 
make  a  distinct  offer,  and  it  is  this :  He  will  pay  you  a 

o  2 


196  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  V, 

thousand  dollars  for  four  articles,  the  first  to  be  delivered,  if 
possible,  before  the  end  of  February.  Now  it  appears  to  me 
that  you  can't  do  better  with  your  chips  than  to  let  him  have 
them  at  this  rate. 

In  gathering  materials  for  your  history  you  must  have 
become  intimate  with  a  great  many  historiettes,  of  which  you 
can't  make  use  in  your  main  work,  where  they  would  be  para- 
sites, and  suck  juice  from  the  main  stem  instead  of  helping  to 
feed  it ;  yet,  as  monographs,  they  might  be  made  charming. 
History  travels  by  the  high  road  which  has  no  end,  and  whose 
branches  knit  kingdom  with  kingdom ;  but  is  not  the  historian 
sometimes  tempted  into  an  impasse,  whence  he  must  make  his 
way  back  again,  but  where,  for  all  that,  he  may  have  come 
upon  something  that  more  than  paid  him  for  losing  his  way ! 
I  have  found  it  so  sometimes  when  I  was  meandering  about  an 
old  Italian  town,  and  stumbled  on  the  tomb  of  some  stock 
actor  in  our  great  tragi-comedy  in  which  I^had  an  interest* 
In  history  you  have  to  be  even  more  thrifty  than  Horace,  who 
allows  three  eminent  parts  to  every  play,  and  yet  for  all  of  us 
obscure  fellows  there  is  a  sneaking  interest  in  the  fates  of 
those  other  obscure,  to  whom  Clio  is  obliged  to  deny  a  speak- 
ing  part  in  her  drama.  For  instance,  that  unhappy  young 
Konigsmarck,  buried  under  the  stairs  ;  one  would  like  to  have 
all  the  facts  and  even  the  gossip  about  him.  You  must  have 
plenty  of  such  material.  It  does  not  matter  that  the  man  you 
write  about  should  be  known  by  name  to  a  dozen  people.  So 
much  the  better — you  will  make  him  known.  But  I  won't 
buzz  round  you  any  longer,  only  I  warn  you  that  I  am  starting 
on  an  expedition  to  the  end  of  Long  Wharf,  there  to  make  my 
feet  sticky  with  molasses,  and  that  I  shall  come  back  fonder 
of  the  tip  of  your  nose  than  ever,  and  bent  on  making  my 
toilet  there. 

I  found  your  extract  from  JBunyan  (which  you  have  forgotten 
by  this  time),  and  its  application  so  admirable,  that  I  took  the 
liberty  to  read  it  aloud  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  of  the  elect 
who  liked  it  as  much  as  I  did. 

I  am  afraid  we  shall  have  a  bad  time  of  it  with  England 
yet.  Our  people  are  naturally  irritated  beyond  measure ;  not 


1864.]  NORTHERN  SUCCESSES.  197 

so  much  by  what  England  has  done  as  by  what  she  has  said, 
I  know  it  is  not  philosophical ;  but  I  am  not  sure  that,  under 
certain  circumstances,  we  may  not  fancy  we  are  philosophers 
when  we  are  really  cowards. 

Everything  here  looks  well.  I  think  our  last  election  fairly 
legitimizes  democracy  for  the  first  time.  It  won't  be  long 
before  Victoria  addresses  Abraham  as  consanguinens  noster.  It 
was  really  a  nobler  thing  than  you  can  readily  conceive  so  far 
,away,  for  the  Opposition  had  appealed  to  every  base  element 
in  human  nature,  and  cunningly  appealed  too. 

I  think  the  war  is  to  last  a  good  while  yet,  unless  (and  I 
have  some  hope  of  it)  some  State  should  secede  from  the  Con- 
federacy. Then,  I  think,  they  would  go  to  pieces.  However, 
the  taking  of  Savannah  (involving,  as  it  probably  will,  that  of 
Augusta)  and  the  defeat  of  Hood  are  terrible  blows.  You 
observe  how  anxious  the  Canadians  are  becoming  to  set  them- 
selves right  again.  This  is  among  the  signs  of  the  times. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  at  Newport  last  summer  a 
very  charming  young  lady  who  bore  your  name,  and  whose 
patriotism  was  very  dear  to  me.  With  cordial  remembrances 
to  Mrs.  Motley, 

I  remain  always,  my  dear  Motley, 

Your  sincere  bore, 

J.  K.  LOWELL. 


198  MOTLEY'S   LETTEES.  [CHAP.  VI. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

VIENNA  (1865) — continued. 

Dinner  with  the  Emperor — Davison  the  Actor — Capture  of  Fort  Fisher — Serious 
illness  of  Mr.  Motley's  mother — Letter  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll — Assassi- 
nation of  the  President — General  Grant — Final  victory  of  the  North — 
Abraham  Lincoln — Death  of  Lord  Carlisle — Letter  from  Mr.  Bright — 
Cobden  and  the  civil  war — Free  trade— Letter  to  Lady  W.  Kussell — Austrian 
Tyrol — Hall — Gmunden — Condition  of  the  people — Suspension  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Austrian  Empire — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Marriage  of 
Miss  Motley — Sir  F.  Bruce — General  Grant — his  power  of  sleeping — Stanton 
— Admiral  Farragut — Mr.  Burlingame — Mr.  Howells — Lieutenant- Colonel 
Wendell  Holmes. 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
January  31st,  1865. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — Your  last  letter  was  from  Washington,, 
just  after  you  arrived  in  that  great  mudopolis.  It  was  ad- 
dressed on  the  outside  to  me  and  on  the  inside  to  Mary,  and  as  it 
arrived  when  that  young  female  was  reposing  after  the  Spiegel 
ball,  she  permitted  me  to  read  it  before  she  was  up.  We  con- 
tinue to  be  delighted  with  your  despatches :  we  feel  deeply 
obliged  to  the  dear  Grrinnells  for  all  their  kindness  to  you,  and 
I  am  most  grateful  to  Mr.  Hooper  for  giving  you  a  chance  to 
visit  Washington.  Do  make  a  point  of  seeing  everything  and 
everybody.  But,  alas !  what  is  the  good  of  my  thrusting  my 
long  nose  across  the  Atlantic  into  the  matter  ?  Long  before 
this  reaches  you,  you  will  be  of  return  into  your  fireplaces. 

Mary  is  writing  to  you  by  this  post.  Doubtless  your 
mother  will  do  so  by  the  next  steamer,  and  you  will  be  duly 
informed  that  yesterday  we  had  our  annual  invitation  to  dine 
with  the  Emperor  and  Empress.  The  dinner  was  very  agree- 
able. The  only  other  diplomat  was  the  venerable  Heckeren. 
The  Santa  Quiterias  were  invited  (as  last  year),  but  being 
in  Lisbon,  didn't  appear.  In  consequence  of  the  absence  of 
the  said  Portuguese,  your  mamma  was  told  to  sit  at  the  left  of 


1865.]  THE   EMPKESS   OF  AUSTRIA.  199 

his  I.R.A.M.,  while  my  delightful  post  was  next  to  her 
I.E. A.M.  You  know  the  two  Majesties  always  sit  side  by 
side  in  the  centre  of  the  ring.  Well,  she  was  perfectly  charm- 
ing :  she  is  in  great  beauty  this  year — more  radiant,  lambent, 
exquisite  than  ever.  In  the  midst  of  the  dinner,  while  she 
was  prattling  away  very  amiably,  she  suddenly  said, "  I  am  so 
clumsy,"  and  began  to  blush  in  the  most  adorable  manner, 
like  a  school-girl.  She  had  upset  a  glass  of  Eoman  punch  on 
the  tablecloth ;  and  the  Emperor  coming  to  the  rescue,  very 
heroically  upset  another,  so  that  there  was  a  great  mess. 
Napkins  were  brought,  damages  repaired,  but  the  mantling 
colour  on  her  cheek  was  certainly  not  less  natural  than  the 
spontaneous,  half-confused  laughter  with  which  she  greeted 
the  little  incident,  amid  the  solemn  hush  of  all  the  rest. 

How  I  do  wish  that  I  was  a  "  sentimental  sort  of  fellow,"  as 
honest  K —  -  used  to  say.  What  pretty  and  poetic  things  I 
would  say.  How  many  sonnets  I  would  have  composed  to  those 
majestic  eyebrows.  Well,  for  a  grim  republican  like  me,  I 
think  I  have  given  you  enough  of  the  eau  benite  de  la  cour  for 
one  week. 

Day  after  to-morrow  is  our  annual  dinner  at  Rothschild's, 
after  which  I  am  not  aware  of  any  special  festivities  in  pro- 
spect. We  are  lashing  ourselves  up  into  giving  our  third 
dinner  next  week.  The  Archbishop  of  Athens  has  not  yet 
dined  with  us — videlicet  the  Nuncio.  To-night  we  are  going 
for  the  first  time  to  see  Davison  :  he  plays  Richard  III.,  and 
if  we  are  satisfied  we  shall  go  again.  As  I  remember  him  in 
Dresden,  he  was  the  best  Shakespearean  actor  I  ever  saw. 

Is  it  possible  that  we  never  told  you  that  Thayer  had  been 
appointed  consul  at  Trieste  ?  He  feels  rather  lonely  in  the 
midst  of  his  grandeur.  Still  it  is  an  excellent  bit  of  luck  for 
him,  and  I  rejoice  at  it  sincerely,  and  natter  myself  that  my 
intercessions  in  his  behalf  with  Mr.  Seward  were  not  without 
effect.  We  have  just  heard  of  the  taking  of  Fort  Fisher ;  no 
particulars,  but  it  is  doubtless  a  most  important  success. 

Your  affectionate 

P. 


200  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VI. 

To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
February  '22nd,  1865. 

....  My  heart  is  too  heavy  to  do  more  than  merely  to  say 
that  we  are  all  in  good  health.  God  knows  how  dreadful  a 
thing  it  is  to  me  to  say  that  I  know  not  whether  I  have  a 
mother.  For  a  long  time  I  have  deceived  myself  into  the 
belief  that  my  dear  mother  was  not  materially  worse  than 
when  I  was  at  home  in  1861  ;  but  the  letters  which  we  have 
been  receiving  during  the  last  two  or  three  weeks  represent 
her  as  gradually  sinking  ....  I  know  that  she  expresses 
great  anxiety  to  be  released,  and  that  it  is  selfish  on  my  part 
to  wish  her  life  to  be  prolonged.  But  I  can't  help  it.  It  is  a 
terrible  blank  to  me  to  think  of  the  world  without  her  in  it, 
separated  as  I  have  been  from  her  for  so  long.1 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
March  15th,  1865. 

....  I  am  dreading  by  every  post  to  receive  the  fatal  news 
that  I  have  no  mother — my  dear,  dear  mother !  I  think  of 
her  every  hour  of  the  day,  and  yet  I  have  almost  habituated 
myself  to  think  of  her  as  one  already  in  heaven.  Yet  it  is 
most  bitter  to  me  to  think  that  I  shall  never  look  upon  her 
face  again.  Certainly  no  one  ever  had  a  more  angelic  mother 
than  we  have  had.  It  is,  I  believe,  a  sacred  truth  that  I  never 
had  a  word  of  difference  with  her  in  the  whole  course  of  my 
life.  I  cannot  recall  that  she  ever  spoke  a  word  to  me  except 
of  love  and  tenderness  since  I  was  born  ;  but  this  only  makes 
it  more  painful  to  reflect  that  I  shall  never  be  blessed  again 
with  her  sweet  and  gentle  presence.  Well,  we  are  all  growing 
old  very  fast :  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have  added  twenty  years 
to  my  life  in  the  last  twelvemonth  or  so,  and  individually 
there  seems  but  little  to  look  forward  to.  I  suppose  that  the 
grandeur  of  the  events  now  occurring  in  our  country,  and  the 
almost  infinite  issues  depending  on  the  result  of  our  great 

1  Mrs.  Motley  died  on  March  7th,  1865. 


1865.]  ASSASSINATIONJ)F  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  201 

struggle,  dwarf  all  petty  personal  interests  and  ambitions. 
My  own  microcosm  seems  to  shrivel  to  the  dimensions  of  a 
nut-shell.  Yet  sometimes  I  wish  to  live  twenty  years  longer 
that  I  may  witness  the  magnificent  gain  to  freedom  and  civili- 
zation and  human  progress  which  are  sure  to  result  from  our 
great  triumphs  of  which  the  hour  is  almost  striking. 

Love  to  Mrs.  Wadsworth.  Thank  your  Aunt  Annie  and 
uncles  for  their  great  kindness  in  writing  me  so  constantly 
about  my  dearest  mother. 

Your  affectionate 

P. 


To  the  Duchess  of  Argyll. 

Vienna, 
May  27th,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  DUCHESS  OF  ARGYLL, — It  was  with  great  delight 
that  I  received  your  very  kind  letter  of  19th  May.  My 
daughter  was  in  London  but  a  very  few  days,  and  as  she  only 
learned  of  the  Washington  tragedy  l  on  the  day  after  her 
arrival  in  England,  it  was  hardly  possible  for  her  to  go  any- 
where, and  she  hurried  to  us  as  fast  as  she  could  get  here.  She 
has  often  spoken  to  us  of  the  privilege  she  enjoyed  in  having 
a  glimpse  of  you  on  her  way  to  America  last  summer,  and  of 
your  kindness  to  her  on  that  occasion.  I  thank  you  from 
my  heart  for  your  genial  words  of  sympathy  in  our  national 
joy,  and  our  national  bereavement.  I  felt  perfectly  sure 
before  you  wrote  that  the  Duke  and  yourself  had  both  rejoiced 
with  us  and  wept  with  us.  For  myself,  I  can  truly  say  that  I 
did  not — that  the  vast  majority  of  my  countrymen  did  not 
— indulge  in  a  sentiment  of  exultation,  of  political  and  vulgar 
triumph  at  the  sudden  and  tremendous  blow  with  which  the 
extraordinary  genius  of  Grant  shattered  the  confederacy  of 
the  slaveholders  in  the  brief  space  of  a  single  week  and  sent 
the  mutineers  howling  into  the  limbo  which  has  so  long  been 
waiting  for  them. 

I  have  never  doubted — no  American  who  deserves  the  name 
lias  ever  doubted  (except  perhaps  in  one  brief,  dark  moment 

1  The  assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 


202  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VI, 

in  1862,  when  there  were  indications  of  military  treason  in 
high  places) — of  the  certainty  of  the  suppression  of  the 
mutiny  and  of  the  extirpation  of  its  cause ;  but  I  am  sure 
that  no  man  ever  looked  for  so  overwhelming  and  so  dramatic 
a  catastrophe  as  the  storming  of  the  Petersburg  lines,  the 
capture  of  Kichmond,  and  the  surrender  of  all  the  armies  of 
the  "  Confederacy  "  in  so  brief  a  period  of  time.  No  man,  I 
mean,  except  Ulysses  Grant.  I  am  no  great  admirer  of 
military  heroes,  but  we  needed  one  at  this  period,  and  we  can 
never  be  too  thankful  that  exactly  such  a  one  was  vouchsafed 
to  us — one  so  vast  and  fertile  in  conception,  so  patient  in  wait- 
ing, so  rapid  in  striking,  had  come,  and  withal  so  destitute  of 
personal  ambition,  so  modest,  so  averse  to  public  notoriety. 
The  man  on  whom  the  gaze  of  both  hemispheres  has  been 
steadily  concentrated  for  two  years,  seems  ever  shrinking  from 
observation.  All  his  admiration  warmly  expressed  is  for 
Sherman  and  Sheridan.  So  long  as  we  can  produce  such  a 
man  as  Grant,  our  Kepublic  is  safe. 

How  very  feeble  seems  the  talk  much  indulged  in  on  this 
side  the  Atlantic  about  military  dictatorships,  and  all  the  rest 
of  it  in  America,  to  those  who  know  something  of  that  part  of 
the  world  and  its  inhabitants !  There  is  something  very 
sublime  to  my  imagination  in  the  fact  that  Grant  has  never 
yet  set  his  foot  in  Richmond,  and  perhaps  never  will. 

I  said  that  we  were  not  in  a  state  of  exultation  at  our 
immense  victory.  On  the  contrary,  I  believe  that  the  all-per- 
vading genuine  sentiment  of  the  American  people  was  that  of 
humble,  grateful  thanksgiving  to  God  that  the  foul  sedition 
was  suppressed  and  the  national  life  preserved.  The  spectacle 
of  twenty  thousand  men  in  the  busiest  haunts  of  trade  in  one 
of  the  most  thronged  cities  of  the  world  spontaneously  un- 
covering their  heads  and  singing  a  psalm  of  thanksgiving — 
"  0  Lord,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  " — when  the  news  of 
victory  reached  them,  was  not  an  ignoble  scene. 

I  cannot  trust  myself  yet  to  speak  of  President  Lincoln,  for 
I  am  afraid  of  possible  exaggeration.  I  had  a  great  reverence 
for  his  character — a  sentiment  which  has  been  steadily 
growing  for  the  last  two  years.  On  the  very  first  interview 


1865.]  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  203- 

that  I  had  with  him  in  the  summer  of  1861,  he  impressed  me 
as  a  man  of  the  most  extraordinary  conscientiousness.  He 
seemed  to  have  a  window  in  his  breast.  There  was  something 
almost  childlike  in  his  absence  of  guile  and  affectation  of  any 
kind.  Of  course,  on  the  few  occasions  when  I  had  the  privilege 
of  conversing  with  him,  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  pretend  to 
form  an  estimate  as  to  his  intellectual  power,  but  I  was  struck 
with  his  simple  wisdom,  his  straightforward,  unsophisticated 
common  sense.  What  our  Kepublic,  what  the  whole  world  has 
to  be  grateful  for,  is  that  God  has  endowed  our  chief  magistrate 
at  such  a  momentous  period  of  history  with  so  lofty  a  moral 
nature  and  with  so  loving  and  forgiving  a  disposition. 

His  mental  abilities  were  large,  and  they  became  the  more 
robust  as  the  more  weight  was  imposed  upon  them,  and  his 
faculty  of  divining  the  right  amid  a  conflict  of  dogmas,, 
theories,  and  of  weighing  other  men's  opinions  while  retaining 
his  own  judgment,  almost  amounted  to  political  genius,  but 
his  great  characteristic  was  devotion  to  duty.  I  am  very  glad 
that  you  admire  that  little  inaugural  address  of  last  March. 
The  children  in  every  American  school  ought  to  be  made  to 
learn  it  by  heart.  "  With  malice  towards  none,  with  charity 
to  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in  " — those 
words  should  be  his  epitaph,  and  who  in  the  long  roll  of  the 
world's  rulers  have  deserved  a  nobler  one  ? 

It  is  very  kind  in  you  to  say  that  you  wish  you  could  see 
me  again.  I  am  sure  I  should  esteem  it  a  very  great  happi- 
ness to  see  the  Duke  and  yourself  once  more.  But  I  am  sure 
that  the  Duke  will  always  remember  what  he  has  so  nobly 
spoken  with  pleasure,  and  I  know  that  his  name  will  be  ever 

honoured  as  it  deserves  in  America. 

• 

But  I  fear  that  it  is  not  the  Times  alone,  but  every  organ  of 
public  opinion  in  England,  save  two  or  three,  and  all  the 
"  governing  classes,"  with  a  very  few  exceptions,  who  not  only 
believed  our  national  death  to  be  inevitable,  but  who  are  very 
wretched  now  that  they  find  themselves  mistaken. 

I  have  to  acknowledge  a  very  kind  letter  from  the  Duke  of 
the  21st  December.  I  don't  venture  to  answer  it  just  nowr 


204  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VI. 

for  I  am  afraid  I  have  already  trespassed  too  far  on  your  kind- 
ness in  this  interminable  letter.     But  pray  thank  him  most 
sincerely  for  the  details  he  was  so  kind  to  give  me  of  the  last 
painful  sufferings  of  Lord  Carlisle,  the  memory  of  whose  constant 
kindness  to  me  I  shall  ever  reverently  and  affectionately  cherish. 
With  our  united  and  kindest  regards  to  the  Duke  and  yourself, 
Pray  believe  me, 

Most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


From  Mr.  John  Bright. 

Rochdale, 
July  31st,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  MOTLEY, — I  hope  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I 
received  your  letter  of  the  6th  of  June  with  great  pleasure. 
It  was  written  on  subjects  and  events  most  astonishing  and 
most  sad,  and  yet  I  read  it  with  pleasure,  because  the  whole  of 
it  was  so  much  in  accordance  with  my  own  feelings. 

I  have  often  thought  of  the  morning  when  we  met  at  Mr. 
Layard's.1  We  were  then  entering  as  it  were,  into  the  cloud, 
and  none  of  us  could  tell  when  light  would  again  appear. 

I  thought  my  lamented  friend,  Mr.  Cobden,  was  rather 
severe  upon  you,  and  I  told  him  afterwards  that  I  thought  his 

1  See  Morley's  *  Life  of  Cobden,'  ii.  had  been  writing  in  the  newspapers  in 
p.  373  ;  ii.  p.  478,  note  : — "  As  we  have  favour  of  the  Northern  case.  As  they 
seen  more  than  once,  Cobden  was  al-  walked  away  down  Piccadilly  together, 
ways  prone  to  be  led  by  his  sympathies  Mr.  Bright  remonstrated  with  Cobden 
as  an  economist.  The  hesitation,  how-  on  these  symptoms  of  a  leaning  towards 
ever,  did  not  last  long.  He  tolerably  the  South.  The  argument  was  con- 
soon  came  round  to  a  more  correct  view  tinued  and  renewed,  as  other  arguments 
of  the  issues  at  stake,  partly  under  the  had  been,  between  them.  The  time 
influence  of  Mr.  Bright,  whose  saga-  came  for  Cobden  to  address  his  con- 
city,  sharpened  by  his  religious  hatred  stituents  at  Rochdale.  *  Now,'  said 
of  slavery,  at  once  perceived  that  a  Mr.  Bright,  with  a  final  push  of  insist- 
break-up  of  the  American  Union  would  ence,  *  this  is  the  moment  for  you  to 
be  a  damaging  blow  to  the  cause  of  speak  with  a  clear  voice.'  Cobden'fl 
freedom  all  over  the  world.  At  the  vision  by  this  time  was  no  longer  dis- 
beginning  of  the  struggle,  they  hap-  turbed  by  economic  or  other  preposses- 
pened  to  meet  Mr.  Motley  at  breakfast.  sions,  and  he  was  henceforth  as  gene- 
With  a  good  deal  of  liveliness,  Cobden  rally  identified  as  Mr.  Bright  with 
attacked  something  which  Mr.  Motley  support  of  the  Northern  cause." 


1865.J  RICHARD   COBDEN.  205 

argument  was  hardly  fair.  He  was  so  much  shocked  at  the 
war  that  he  seemed  ready  for  any  sacrifice  to  put  an  end  to  it, 
and  he  had  no  confidence  in  the  statesmen  whom  the  Kepub- 
lican  party  had  raised  to  office.  But  he  always  insisted  upon 
this — that  an  attempt  to  build  up  a  new  state  on  the  foundation 
of  human  bondage  could  not  succeed  in  our  age  of  the  world. 

He  watched  the  course  of  the  war  with  intense  interest,  and 
strange  to  say  his  eyes  closed  in  death  on  the  very  day  on 
which  Kichmond  fell.  I  was  with  him  during  the  last  hours 
of  his  life,  but  it  was  too  late  for  love  or  friendship  to  render 
him  any  assistance.  In  the  general  mourning  at  his  death 
there  is  something  to  rejoice  over,  and  much  to  cause  a  feeling 
akin  to  regret.  It  is  humiliating  to  remember  how  he  has 
been  pursued  during  his  life  by  the  malice  and  vituperation 
of  large  classes  of  his  countrymen  and  by  writers  in  the  public 
press,  and  that  death  only  could  so  make  evident  his  services 
and  his  virtues,  as  to  silence  the  bitter  tongue  of  slander.  To 
me  this  event  has  been  a  heavy  blow — so  heavy  that  for  some 
weeks  I  felt  my  whole  existence  disturbed  and  changed,  and  I 
left  London  for  a  time  that  I  might  escape  the  incessant  pain 
which  seemed  to  rest  upon  me.  I  am  not  deeply  informed  on 
history  or  biography,  but  I  suspect  there  are  few  cases  where 
the  life  and  labours  of  one  man  have  produced  results  at  once 
so  great  and  so  useful  to  mankind.  The  notions  which  were 
held  in  almost  universal  contempt  by  our  rich  and  ruling 
class  twenty-five  years  ago,  are  now  received  as  the  true 
wisdom  of  our  statesmen  ;  and  these  statesmen  made  their 
reputation  on  a  policy  which  not  long  ago  they  despised. 

A  fortnight  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Cobden,  my  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  Lucas,  of  the  Morning  Star  newspaper,  was  taken 
from  us.  Mr.  Cobden's  death  was  a  great  shock  to  him.  He 
was  ill  when  that  event  occurred,  and  from  that  day  he  never 
left  his  house.  On  Saturday,  15th  April  (he  died  just  after 
midnight  following),  he  heard  of  the  fall  of  Bichrnond.  A 
smile  passed  over  his  languid  face>  as  he  said :  "  What  a  pity 
Cobden  did  not  live  to  hear  of  this."  Mr.  Lucas  was  a  true 
iriend  to  your  country — and  to  me  his  loss,  coming  imme- 
diately after  that  of  Mr.  Cobden,  was  a  great  trial. 


206  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VI. 

But  death  is  common,  and  is  seen  or  heard  of  daily,  but  not 
in  the  form  in  which  it  came  to  your  good  President.  The 
shock  produced  in  this  country  was  very  great.  All  your 
friends  were  plunged  into  sorrow,  and  all  your  enemies  into 
shame,  and  from  that  time  there  has  been  a  rapid  change  of 
opinion  and  of  feeling  here  on  all  American  questions.  I 
have  said  nothing  in  public  on  the  character  and  services  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  since  his  death.  During  his  life  I  said  all  on 
his  behalf  that  I  know  how  to  express  in  our  language.  From 
the  first  I  have  marked  his  career  with  strong  and  growing  in- 
terest, and  I  have  seen  i'n  all  his  speeches,  and  in  all  his  public 
papers  and  addresses,  something  different  from,  and  some- 
thing higher  than,  anything  that  has  ever  before  proceeded 
from  the  tongue  or  pen  of  president  or  potentate.  It  is  this 
"  something  "  which  has  made  him  almost  a  member  of  every 
family  in  the  Northern  States,  and  which  has  endeared  him  to 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  in  this  country.  His  noble 
character,  and  his  sad  but  gentle  countenance,  as  we  see  him 
in  his  portrait,  will  never  be'  forgotten  by  this  generation  of 
our  countrymen. 

I  am  glad  to  read  what  you  say  on  the  question  of  Free 
Trade.  With  you  it  is  not  the  question  it  once  was  Avith  us. 
Protection  with  us  was  a  political  subjugation  of  our  people  to 
the  owners  of  the  soil,  and  our  battle  was  infinitely  more 
desperate  than  yours  can  be.  When  your  people  fairly 
examine  the  matter,  they  will  soon  see  through  the  fallacies 
of  Mr.  Carey  and  his  followers,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
necessities  of  your  financial  position  will  force  them  in  the 
direction  of  a  moderate  tariff.  The  South  and  the  West  can 
have  no  interest  in  high  duties,  and  the  Eastern  States  will 
not  be  unanimous  in  their  favour.  I  am  anxious  to  see  what 
Mr.  McCulloch's  Commission  will  recommend.  I  have  formed 
a  good  opinion  of  his  good  sense  and  capacity,  and  I  am  sure 
he  must  regard  your  present  tariff  with  disgust. 

We  are  all  quiet  here.  Our  elections  have  ended  in  disaster 
to  the  Tories,  and  I  feel  sure  we  are  approaching  another,  and 
a,  considerable  step  on  the  road  to  a  real  representation  of  the 
people.  Lord  Palmerston's  reign  is  nearly  over,  and  with  him 


18G5.]  AUSTKIAN   TYROL.  207 

will  end  much  of  our  evil  policy  at  home  and  abroad.  Men  of 
this  generation  will  succeed,  and  there  will  be  in  our  political 
condition  something  of  a  "new  heaven  and  a  new  earth." 

We  have  now  a  free  Press,  a  free  platform,  and  if  we  get  a 
free  Parliament,  I  think  we  shall  see  changes,  startling  to 
some,  but  full  of  blessing  to  the  people. 

I  hope  some  time  you  will  come  to  England,  and  then  I 
may  see  you  again.  In  the  dark  hours,  and  in  the  bright 
moments  of  the  great  conflict,  I  have  often  thought  of  you. 

I  am  now  every  day  happy  in  the  consciousness  that  the 
struggle  is  ended. 

Believe  me  always  sincerely  yours, 

JOHN  BRIGHT. 


To  Lady  William  Russell. 

Gmunden, 
September  22nd,  1865. 

DEAR  LADY  WILLIAM, — Your  kind  note  of  August  20th 
would  not  have  remained  so  long  unanswered,  had  I  not  with 
my  whole  household  been  making  a  somewhat  protracted  vil- 
leggiatura.  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  interesting  details 
as  to  Arthur's  engagement,  which  you  are  so  good  as  to  send 
me,  and  I  hope  that  he  will  accept  my  warmest  congratulations 
and  good  wishes  for  his  happiness  and  prosperity.  Were  it 
not  for  my  desire  to  express  my  sympathy  on  this  occasion 
I  should  hardly  write  at  all,  but  wait  until  I  should  be  in  a 
little  better  spirits.  We  have  been  passing  three  weeks  at  a 
little  spa,  called  Hall,  in  Upper  Austria,  for  the  sake  of  iodine 
baths  for  my  second  daughter,  who  is  somewhat  menaced  with 
poverty  of  blood,  and  has  been  worrying  us  in  consequence. 
She  is,  I  think,  better  now,  but  bored,  for  with  her  mother  only 
she  had  spent  five  previous  weeks  at  the  same  place,  in  July 
and  August.  Hall  is  a  dull  little  nest  enough,  but  in  the 
midst  of  a  fat  and  fruitful  country.  A  paradise  of  peasants, 
for  the  land  all  belongs  to  them,  in  small  properties,  and  I 
never  saw  better  farming  or  more  bountiful  harvests.  There 
has  hardly  been  one  Ritterguibesitzer  in  the  whole  province 


208  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VI, 

since  the  fifteenth  century,  so  that  those  who  believe  that  the 
earth  will  not  yield  its  increase  until  its  whole  surface  belongs 
to  a  few  favoured  individuals,  may  find  something  there  to 
stagger  their  theory.  I  will  trouble  you  to  show  better  fields 
of  wheat  or  clover,  or  cider,  than  in  the  archduchy. 

Alas,  I  did  not  mean  to  babble  of  green  fields,  still  less  to 
preach  political  economy,  but  what  topic  can  I  find  ?  .... 
Doubtless  you  know  Gmunden,  where  we  are,  and  Ischl,  where 
we  are  going,  so  I  shall  not  describe  their  charms,  which  are 
manifest.  I  have  seen  hardly  a  soul  in  six  weeks  outside  of 
my  own  household.  I  have  been  trying  to  forget  the  politics 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  of  the  seventeenth,  and  that 
Schleswig-Holstein  " Meer  umschlungen"  or  that  the  Marquis 
Spinola  ever  existed.  All  of  a  sudden  this  morning  we  hear 
of  our  mild  little  coup  d'etat  in  Vienna.  Here  is  our  blessed 
little  Constitution  of  February  abolished,  or  rather  "  sistirt" 
a  fico  for  the  phrase.  The  Ungarn  Keichsrath  and  the  Weit- 
erer  Keichsrath  are  both  gone  to  Abraham's  bosom,  and  the 
Huns,  with  their  passive  resistance,  have  triumphed  at  last. 
Now  if  the  infuriated  people  are  building  barricades  in  the 
Kohlmarkt  and  Graben,  and  if  a  revolution  is  going  on,  I 
shan't  be  there  to  see,  unluckily,  for  we  stop  here  a  fortnight 
longer.  Probably  there  will  be  a  few  more  bottles  of  Schwe- 
chater  Bier  consumed  this  week  than  usual.  Alas,  for  the 
beautiful  new  Parliament  House  which  we  were  just  beginning 
to  build  on  the  most  solid  foundations,  not  far  from  the  new 
Opera  House !  I'm  afraid  that  the  labours  of  that  piece  of 
architecture  will  be  "  sistirt."  The  Schmerling  Theatre  out- 
side the  Schottenthor  was  a  shaky  little  temporary  affair  of 
lath  and  plaster,  but  it  has  lasted  longer  than  the  Imperial 
Parliament,  of  which  it  has  'been  cradle  and  grave. 

Sincerely  and  affectionately  yours, 

YAKIUS  MINIMUS. 


1865.]  SIR  FREDERICK  BRUCE.  209 

From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston,         * 
October  IQth,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — When  Miss  Lily  left  us  last  March, 
we  hardly  thought  she  would  be  so  very  soon  back  in  America 
as  we  hear  she  is  to  be.  I  cannot  let  the  day  of  her  marriage 
go  over  without  a  line  to  her  father  and  mother  as  a  substitute 
for  the  epithalamium  with  which  a  century  ago  I  should  (if  all 
parties  had  been  extant)  have  illuminated  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine.  I  hear  from  one  of  my  Providence  friends,  the  best 
accounts  of  Mr.  Ives.  I  hope  that  the  alliance  will  prove  very 
happy  to  her,  to  you,  to  your  wife,  and  all  your  connections. 
It  is  having  a  son,  a  brother,  born  full  grown,  to  receive  a 
daughter's  husband  as  a  member  of  one's  family.  With  all 
the  felicitations  which  rise  to  my  lips,  for  I  feel  now  as  if  I 
were  talking  with  you  face  to  face,  I  cannot  help  remember- 
ing how  much  there  must  be  of  tender  regret  mingling  with 
the  blessings  that  follow  the  dear  child  over  the  threshold  of 
the  home  she  had  brightened  with  her  presence.  Even  the 
orange  flowers  must  cast  their  shadow. 

Yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  new  attractions  which 
our  country  will  have  for  you  will  restore  you  and  your  family 
to  those  who  grudge  your  possession  to  an  alien  capital ;  and 
that  having  stood  picket  manfully  at  one  of  our  European 
outposts  through  the  four  years'  campaign,  you  may  wish  to 
be  relieved,  now  that  the  great  danger  seems  over.  t  So  we 
shall  all  hope,  for  our  sakes.  What  a  fine  thing  it  would  be  to 
see  you  back  at  the  Saturday  Club  again.  Longfellow  has 
begun  to  come  again.  He  was  at  his  old  place,  the  end  of 
the  table,  at  our  last  meeting.  We  have  had  a  good  many 
of  the  notabilities  here  with  the  last  three  or  four  months ; 
and  I  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  some  pleasant 
talks  with  most  of  them.  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the  new 
Minister,  pleased  us  all.  You  may  know  him,  very  probably. 
White-haired,  white-whiskered,  red-cheeked,  round-cheeked, 
with  rich  dark  eyes,  hearty,  convivial,  not  afraid  to  use  the 
strengthening  monosyllable  for  which  Englishmen  are  famous, 
pretty  freely  outspoken  for  our  side,  as  if  he  were  one  of  us, 

VOL.  II.  P 


210  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VI.. 

he  produced  on  me  at  least  a  very  different  effect  from  that  of 
lively  Lord  Napier  or  plain  and  quiet  Lord  Lyons. 

I  had  a  good  deal  of  talk  with  Grant,  whom  I  met  twice.. 
He  is  one  of  the  simplest,  stillest  men  I  ever  saw.  He  seems 
torpid  at  first,  and  requires  a  little  management  to  get  much 
talk  out  of  him.  Of  all  the  considerable  personages  I  have 
seen,  he  appears  to  me  to  be  the  least  capable  of  an  emotion  of 
vanity.  He  can  be  drawn  out,  and  will  tell  his  habits  and 
feelings.  I  have  been  very  shy  of  repeating  all  he  said  to  me?. 
for  every  word  of  his  is  snapped  up  with  great  eagerness,  and 
the  most  trivial  of  his  sayings,  if  mentioned  in  the  hearing  of 
a  gossip,  would  run  all  through  the  press  of  the  country.  His 
entire  sincerity  and  homely  truthfulness  of  manner  and  speech 
struck  me  greatly.  He  was  not  conscious,  he  said,  of  ever 
having  acted  from  any  personal  motive  during  his  public 
service.  We  (of  the  West),  he  said,  were  terribly  in  earnest.. 
The  greatest  crisis  was  the  Battle  of  Shiloh ;  that  he  would  not 
lose ;  he  would  have  fought  as  long  as  any  men  were  left  to 
fight  with.  If  that  had  been  lost  the  war  would  have  dragged 
on  for  years  longer.  The  North  would  have  lost  its  prestige^ 
Did  he  enjoy  the  being  followed  as  he  was  by  the  multi- 
tude ?  "  It  was  very  painful."  This  answer  is  singularly 
characteristic  of  the  man.  They  call  on  him  for  speeches 
which  he  cannot  and  will  not  try  to  make. 

One  trait,  half  physiological,  half  moral,  interested  me.  He- 
said  he  was  a  good  sleeper ;  commonly  slept  eight  hours.  He 
could  go  to  sleep  under  almost  any  circumstances ;  could  sety 
a  battle  going,  go  to  sleep  as  if  nothing  were  happening,  and 
wake  up  by-and-by,  when  the  action  had  got  along  somewhat. 
Grant  has  the  look  of  a  plain  business  man,  which  he  is.  I 
doubt  if  we  have  had  any  ideal  so  completely  realised  as  that 
of  the  republican  soldier  in  him.  I  cannot  get  over  the  im- 
pression he  made  on  me.  I  have  got  something  like  it  from 
women  sometimes,  hardly  ever  from  men — that  of  entire  loss 
of  self-hood  in  a  great  aim  which  made  all  the  common  in- 
fluences which  stir  up  other  people  as  nothing  to  him.  I 
don't  think  you  have  met  Stanton.  I  found  him  a  very  mild 
pleasant  person  to  talk  with,  though  he  is  an  ogre  to  rebels- 


1865.]  GliANT  AND  FARRAGUT.  211 

and  their  Northern  friends.  Short,  with  a  square  head,  broad 
not  high,  full  black  beard  turning  grey ;  a  dark,  strong-look- 
ing man ;  he  talks  in  a  very  gentle  tone,  protruding  his  upper 
lip  in  rather  an  odd  way.  Nothing  could  be  more  amiable 
than  the  whole  man.  It  was  pleasant  chat  mainly  we  had 
together.  One  thing  he  said  which  I  could  not  forget. 
Speaking  of  the  campaign  of  the  Wilderness :  "  It  was  the 
bloodiest  swath  ever  made  on  this  globe."  Perhaps  a  little 
hasarde  this  statement,  but  coming  from  the  Secretary  of  War 
it  has  its  significance. 

Old  Farragut,  whom  I  foregathered  with  several  times,  is  the 
lustiest  gaillard  of  sixty-something,  one  will  meet  with  in  the 
course  of  a  season.  It  was  odd  to  contrast  him  and  Major 
Anderson.  I  was  with  them  both  on  one  occasion.  The  Major 
— General  I  should  say — is  a  conscientious,  somewhat  languid, 
rather  bloodless-looking,  gentleman,  who  did  his  duty  well, 
but  was  overtasked  in  doing  it.  Nothing  would  have  sup- 
ported him  but,  etc.,  etc. ;  but  the  old  Admirable — lona  fide 
accident — let  it  stand ;  is  full  of  hot  red  blood,  jolly,  juicy, 
abundant,  equal  to  anything,  and  an  extra  dividend  of  life  left 
ready  for  payment  after  the  largest  expenditure.  I  don't  know 
but  he  is  as  much  the  ideal  seaman  as  Grant  the  ideal  general, 
but  the  type  is  not  so  rare.  He  talks  with  everybody,  merry, 
twinkling  eyed,  up  to  everything,  fond  of  telling  stories,  tells 
them  well ;  the  gayest,  heartiest,  shrewdest  old  boy  you  ever 
sa.w  in  your  life.  The  young  lady  (so  to  speak)  whom  you 
would  naturally  address  as  his  daughter,  is  Mrs.  Farragut,  the 
pretty  wife  of  the  old  heart-of-oak  Admiral. 

Mr.  Burlingame  has  come  home  from  China  on  a  visit.  It 
is  strange  what  stories  they  all  bring  back  from  the  Celestials. 
Kichard  Dana,  Burlingame,  Sir  F.  Bruce,  all  seem  filled  with  a 
great  admiration  of  the  pigtails.  "  There  are  twenty  thousand 
Kalph  Waldo  Emersons  in  China,"  said  Mr.  B.  to  me.  "  We 
have  everything  to  learn  from  them  in  the  matter  of  courtesy. 
They  are  an  honester  people  than  Europeans.  Bayard  Taylor's 
stories  about  their  vices  do  them  great  injustice.  They  are 
from  hasty  impressions  got  in  seaport  towns."  This  is  the 
kind  of  way  they  talk. 

p  2 


212  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VI. 

Mr.  Howells,  from  Venice,  was  here  not  long  ago,  tells  nie  he 
has  seen  you,  who  are  his  u  clief"  I  suppose,  in  some  sense. 
This  is  a  young  man  of  no  small  talent.  In  fact,  his  letters 
from  Venice  are  as  good  travellers'  letters  as  I  remember  since 
<  Eothen.' 

My  son,  Oliver  Wendell  H.,  junior,  now  commonly  styled 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  thinks  of  visiting  Europe  in  the  course  of 
a  few  months,  and  wants  me  to  ask  you  for  a  line  of  introduc- 
tion to  John  Stuart  Mill  and  to  Hughes.  I  give  his  message 
or  request  without  urging  it.  He  is  a  presentable  youth,  with 
fair  antecedents,  and  is  more  familiar  with  Mill's  writings  than 
most  fellows  of  his  years.  -  If  it  like  your  Excellency  to  send 
me  two  brief  notes  for  him  it  would  please  us  both,  but  not  if 
it  is  a  trouble  to  you. 

And  now,  as  I  am  closing  my  gossipy  letter,  full  of  little 
matters  which  I  hoped  might  interest  you  for  a  moment,  let 
me  end  as  I  began,  with  the  thoughts  of  you  and  yours, 
which  this  day  brings  up  so  freshly  before  me.  Peace  and 
prosperity  and  happiness  to  both  households,  the  new  and  the 
old !  What  can  I  say  better  than  to  repeat  that  old  phrase — 
the  kindly  Roman's  prayer  as  a  poor  Christian  would  shape  it 
on  this  "auspicious  morning,"  quod  lonum,  faustum  felix  fortu- 
natumque  sit !  Love  to  all. 

Yours  always, 

0.  W.  H. 


(    213    ) 


CHAPTER  VII. 
VIENNA  (1866,  1867)— continued. 

Andrew  Johnson,  President— A  diplomatic  party — The  European  crisis — Deal- 
ings between  Austria  and  Prussia— Work  on  the  '  United  Netherlands ' — 
Humoured  recall  of  Mr.  Motley — Letter  from  John  Stuart  Mill — Introduc- 
tion to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Progress  of  reconstruction  in  America — Outbreak 
of  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia — The  future  of  Prussia — Bismarck — 
Condition  of  Austria — Marshal  Benedek — Eapid  movements  of  the  Prussian 
army — Benedek's  strategy — The  Bund — News  of  the  battle  of  Koniggratz — 
Action  of  Louis  Napoleon — Panic  in  Vienna — Advance  of  the  Prussian 
army — Lieutenant  Sherman — The  rapidity  of  the  campaign — The  "  Waffen- 
rulie  " — Prospects  of  peace — Abolition  of  the  Bund — Unification  of  Germany 
— Position  of  Italy— The  Atlantic  telegraph  and  its  effects — "  Charlemagn- 
ism  "  and  "  Americanism  " — Louis  Napoleon's  policy — The  balance  of  power 
— Despatches  and  blue  books— Collapse  of  Austria — The  King  of  Hanover — 
Letter  to  Mr.  \V.  Amory — Bazaar  in  Vienna  on  behalf  of  sufferers  by  the 
war — Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell — Condition  of  Austria — Letter  to  the 
Duchess  of  Argyll — The  Duke's  '  Reign  of  Law ' — General  King — America 
and  Radicalism — '  The  Guardian  Angel ' — George  W.  MacCracken — Approach- 
ing completion  of  the  '  United  Netherlands ' — Contemplated  History  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War. 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
April  23rd,  1866. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY,—  ....  How  long  we  shall  be  here  is, 
of  course,  extremely  doubtful,  but  if  Mr.  Johnson1  turns  me 
out,  which  may  happen  now  at  any  moment,  I  should  not 
return  at  present  to  America.  My  *  United  Netherlands'  will 
be  finished  in  a  few  weeks,  but  it  will  require  much  revising, 
and  it  will  probably  not  be  published  until  a  year  from  next 
November.  If  I  am  turned  out  in  the  course  of  the  summer, 
we  might  all  go  together  to  spend  a  winter  in  Nice,  or  Eome, 
or  Palermo,  or  any  place  where  sunshine  is  to  be  had.  If  I 
remain  another  winter  here,  you  could  go  to  the  south  of  the 
Alps  with  whomsoever  you  may  have  arranged  to  come  abroad 
with,  making  us  a  visit  first  in  the  autumn.  Perhaps  Mrs. 
Ives,  or  the  Eussells,  or  your  Aunt  Susan,  would  come  out. 

I  think  such  a  course  would  be  very  good  for  all  of  them. 
I  believe  Mary  or  Susie  told  you  of  a  little  party  at  this 

1  President  Andrew  Johnson. 


214  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

house  last  week.  Princess  Trautmannsdorff  had  told  Countess 
Spiegel  that  she  would  like  to  come  some  evening  sociably, 
so  it  was  arranged  for  last  Wednesday ;  but  on  that  morning 
Countess  Czernin  (grand'mere)  died,  so  that  the  Trautmanns- 
dorffs,  Spiegels,  Boucquoys,  and  Czernins,  being  -all  near 
relations,  couldn't  come.  As  this  was  the  whole,  except 
the  young  people,  the  Ay  lions,  Erdodys,1  Bray2  (father  and 
daughter),  and  the  young  Frenchmen,  Spaniards,  and  Kus- 
sians,  and  a  few  old  gentlemen,  Heckeren,  Stackelberg,3  and 
so  on,  the  party  was  small  enough.  However,  they  stopped 
till  half-past  twelve,  and  the  irrepressible  de  1'Aigle  and 
Bourgoing  made  themselves  and  every  one  else  very  funny. 
To-night,  I  believe,  Alice  Kothschild  and  the  Ayllons  are 
coming  to  tea.  To-morrow  evening  there  is  another  small 
collection — Countess  Hardegg  and  her  daughters,  and  some 
other  people,  including,  of  course,  the  youthful  Dips,  of  all 
nations.  Then  there  is  to  be  a  croquet  party  next  week,  and 
the  deferred  Trautmannsdorff  festivity.  However,  I  had  better 
leave  such  small  beer  to  be  chronicled  by  the  others,  as  I  hope 
Mary  or  Susie  will  write  by  this  post,  and  perhaps  you  would 
like  me  to  say  something  of  the  haute  politique. 

It  is  an  anxious  moment  in  Europe.  I  have  not  been  outside 
the  house  to-day,  but  I  am  going  to  dine  with  Henikstein,4 
where  I  shall  find  some  colleagues,  and  learn  the  latest  news. 
Otherwise  I  shall  be  obliged  to  go  to  the  Foreign  Office 
to-morrow,  for  I  must  send  the  latest  authentic  news  to  the 
United  States  Government.  Up  to  this  moment  of  writing,  so 
far  as  I  know,  the  Prussian  answer  to  the  last  note  has  not 
arrived.  Let  me  see  if  I  can  epigrammatise  in  six  lines  the 
situation  thus  far  for  your  private  edification. 

1864. — Prussia  and  Austria  in  the  early  months  make  war  011 
Denmark,  because  Schleswig-Holstein  belongs  to  Mr.  August- 
enburg. 

1864.  Midsummer. — Prussia  and  Austria  having  conquered 
Denmark  without  allowing  the  Bund  to  participate  in  the  war, 

1  Afterwards  Countess  Louis  Karolyi  3    Count       Stackelberg,       Russian 
and  Conntess  Be'la  Szechenyi.                      Minister. 

2  Count  Bray,  Bavarian  Minister.  4  Baron  Henikstein,  his  banker. 


1866.]  AUSTRIA  AND  PRUSSIA.  215 

Accept  Schleswig-Holstein  from  Denmark.     Mr.  Augustenburg 
fades  out. 

1865.  September. — Prussia  and  Austria  agree  at  Gastein  to 
have  a  temporary  division  of  the  booty.     Prussia  to  have  the 
administration  of  Schleswig,  Austria  to  adminster  Holstein. 

1866. — Very  early  in  the  year,  Mr.  Augustenburg  begins  to 
emerge,  and  gives  trouble  in  Holstein.  Austria  remembers 
that  she  had  once  favoured  his  pretensions.  Prussia  has 
forgotten  all  about  it,  and  only  remembers  that  she  always 
meant  to  annex  Schleswig-Holstein  to  her  own  dominions. 

January  26th. — Prussia  tells  Austria  that  her  administration 
of  Holstein  is  dangerous  to  her  peace  of  mind.  Mr.  August- 
enburg is  allowed  to  live  in  the  duchy,  and  is  a  standing- 
protest  against  their  joint  sovereignty  and  a  general  nuisance, 
and  must  be  incontinently  cast  out  into  space. 

1866.  February. — Austria  replies  that  Prussia  herself  invented 
Augustenburg  originally,   and   that  Prussia  now  had  better 
mind  her  own  business.     According  to  Gastein,  Prussia  is  to 
administer  Schleswig,  and  has  no  right  to  put  her  nose  into 
Holstein.     Correspondence  drops.      Prussia  then  inquires  of 
all  the  German  Powers  what  they  will  do  if  Austria  attacks 
her,  or  if  she  should  find  herself  obliged  to  fight  Austria. 
Chorus  of  small  German  States  shout  "  Appeal  to  the  Bund." 
Now  the  blessed  old  Bund  has  a  machine  in  its  armoury  called 
Article  XI.     This  is  a  very  superior  article  indeed.     By  its 
provisions  no  two  German  Powers  are  allowed  to  snarl  and 
fight;   they   are   to   come   straight   to   Frankfort   with  their 
quarrels.     Instead  of  lifting  their  little  hands  to  scratch  each 
other,  the   Bund  must  set  it  all   right  between  them.      So 
Prussia  gets  for  answer,  according  to  Article  XI.,  that  she  is 
not  to  let  her  angry  passions  rise.     Not  believing  so  much  in 
the  Bund  nor  in  Dr.  Watts  as  one  could  wish,  Prussia  lets  her 
passions  continue  to  rise.     She  says  she  will  and  must  have 
Schleswig-Holstein,  peaceably  if  possible,  forcibly  if  necessary, 
and  begins  to  prepare  for  a  great  fight  with  Austria.     Austria 
meantime  makes  no  preparations  to  fight  Prussia. 

Prussia  naturally  much  exasperated  at  this,  makes  loud 
complaint  that  Austria  is  getting  ready  to  attack  her,  and 


216  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  VII, 

sends  word  to  Vienna,  in  goading  language,  to  that  effect. 
Austria  denies  it. 

April  5th. — Prussia  writes  word  that  she  knows  better. 
April  Itli. — Austria  replies  that  it  is  beneath  her  dignity  to 
contradict  once  more  a  charge  which  she  has  so  often  con- 
tradicted. 

Nevertheless,  pocketing  her  dignity,  she  protests  solemnly 
that  all  accusations  that  she  is  arming  are  contrary  to  truth, 
and  she  calls  on  Prussia,  and  this  time  in  bumptious  accents, 
to  disarm. 

April  15th. — Prussia  replies  acrimoniously  that  she  cannot 
disarm  unless  Austria  takes  the  initiative,  not  believing  at  all 
her  statements  that  she  has  not  armed. 

April  Yltli. — Bavaria  appears  on  the  scene  as  umpire  or 
judicious  bottle-holder,  and  begs  Prussia  and  Austria  to 
disarm  simultaneously. 

April  18th. — Austria  says,  "  With  pleasure,"  and  sends  word 
to  Prussia  that  she  will  disarm  on  the  26th  of  April,  if  Prussia 
will  follow  suit  next  day,  having  just  stated  with  perfect  truth 
that  she  has  not  armed  at  all. 

And  that  is  exactly  where  we  are  at  present.  To-day  is  the 
23rd,  and  Prussia  has  not  yet  replied.  If  she  does  not  reply 
(and  favourably)  within  two  or  three  days,  Werther  will  have- 
to  leave  his  P.P.C.  at  Vienna  and  Karolyi  ditto  at  Berlin. 

P.S.  (April  2£th). — Prussia  has  replied.  The  note  was  given 
in  yesterday  at  2  P.M.  Prussia  will  disarm  "  in  principle,"  ais 
fur  et  a  mesure  as  Austria  disarms. 

Now  will  come  a  puzzling  problem  in  Kule  of  Three.  Query : 
Austria  not  having  armed  at  all,  how  much  disarming  will 
be  required  of  Prussia  to  equal  the  promised  disarming  of 
Austria  ? 

The  boy  who  answers  that  deserves  to  have  a  double-headed 
eagle  of  the  first  class  tied  around  his  neck,  and  I  wish  he  may 
get  it. 

I  have  been  ponderously  chaffing  on  this  subject,  my  dear 
child,  because  I  have  been  boring  myself  and  the  United 
States  Department  with  dreary  despatches  on  this  dreary 
Schleswig-Holsteinismus  once  a  week  these  three  months ;  and 


1866.]  THE  EUROPEAN  CRISIS.  217 

really  I  have  not  put  down  in  the  foregoing  pages  all  that  I 
know,  or  anybody  knows,  on  the  subject.  I  have  felt  all  along 
that  there  would  be  war.  I  still  feel  so.  Everybody  else  says 
there  will  be  peace.  Nobody  doubts  that  Prussia  will  get  the 
Duchies,  however.  To  resume  the  case  between  Austria  and 
Prussia,  in  a  single  phrase,  "  They  won't  fight,  and  they  won't 
make  up,  and  they  keep  nagging."1 

Meantime  Italy  is  flaring  up,  and  on  Sunday  we  were 
startled  by  the  intelligence  that  Archduke  Albert,  at  the 
head  of  his  staff,  was  careering  off  to  Verona,  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  Southern  army.  He  isn't  gone  yet,  however,  but 
it  is  thought  that  he  is  going  this  week. 

In  short,  there  is  much  mischief  brewing.  These  people 
have  been  playing  with  edge  tools  ever  since  the  beginning  of 
January,  and  somebody  may  get  hurt. 

"If  I  laugh  at  any  mortal  thing  'tis  that  I  may  not  weep," 
and  I  feel  more  like  crying,  a  good  deal,  when  I  am  writing  to 
you.  We  miss  you  more  and  more  every  day,  and  find  it 
harder  and  harder  to  get  on  without  you.  God  bless  you,  my 
darling.  Kemember  us  kindly  to  Mrs.  Ives  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Kussell.  All  send  love,  and  all  are  well. 

Ever  your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


To  Ms  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
May  2nd,  I860. 

MY  DEAEEST  LILY, — I  wrote  finis  to  volume  fourth  and 
lastly  of  the  '  United  Netherlands '  day  before  yesterday  at 
half-past  five,  while  the  croquet  people  were  howling  on  the 
lawn  through  the  open  window. 

The  weather  has  been  mid-summery ;  to-day  it  has  turned 
cold.  The  heaven  is  hung  with  black,  and  it  is  trying  to  rain. 
My  occupation  is  not  gone  yet  with  my  History.  I  have  many 
months'  work  in  revising  and  annotating  these  two  concluding 
volumes.  But,  anyhow,  you  can  say  to  any  inquiring  friends 
that  the  work  is  finished. 

1  Quotation  from  Charles  Reade's  « Love  me  little,  love  me  long.' 


'218  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

When  it  will  go  to  press  is  not  yet  settled,  I  arn  in  no  hurry 
about  that. 

A  telegram  in  the  Viennese  papers  this  morning  announces 
that  the  London  Times  stated  yesterday  that  Mr.  Seward  has 
instructed  me  to  leave  Vienna  instantly  if  a  single  Austrian 
volunteer  is  shipped  for  Mexico.  He  was  probably  kind 
enough  to  hand  the  despatch  to  the  Times  correspondent  instead 
of  to  me.  Anyhow,  it  has  not  reached  me,  and  I  don't  expect 
it.  There  is  nothing  new  about  the  war  to-day,  I  believe. 

Nobody  doubts  that  it  will  come  soon.  I  should  say  that 
peace  was  now  impossible  except  by  a  straight  cave-in  by 
Austria  giving  up  the  duchies  to  Bismarck,  making  peace 
with  Prussia,  and  spending  all  her  energies  against  Italy.  It 
is  almost  too  late  for  this,  however.  The  triangular  duel  is 
about  to  begin.  If  you  ever  read  Marryat's  '  Midshipman 
Easy,'  you  will  remember  how  this  remarkable  contest  has 
been  foreshadowed. 

P.  is  going  to  fire  into  A.  because  A.  is  taking  aim  at  I. 

"  Because,"  says  P.,  "  if  I.  should  get  hurt  she  would  be 
harmless  against  A.  should  P.  wish  to  rely  upon  her  in  a  fight 
-with  A." 

This  is  almost,  word  for  word,  the  substance  of  P.'s  last 
semi-official  declaration  when  declining  to  disarm  after  having 
agreed  the  day  before  to  do  so 

This  is  less  a  letter  than  a  "  posy  to  a  ring."  Despite  its 
brevity  it  will  serve  to  assure  you  that  we  are  all  well.  There 
is  no  need  of  assuring  you  how  much  we  daily  miss  you,  my 
•dearest  darling.  Don't  forget  what  I  told  you  in  my  last. 
You  must  not  confront  the  New  England  climate  next  winter. 

Ever  your  affectionate 
PAPA. 


From  Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill. 

Blackheath  Park, 

May  Gth,  I860. 

DEAK  SIR, — I  am  afraid  you  must  have  thought  hard  things 
of  me  for  being  so  slow  in  answering  your  very  friendly  and 


1866.]  RECONSTRUCTION  IN  AMERICA.  219 

most  interesting  letter  of  February  1st.  Had  your  introduc- 
•tion  to  Mr.  Holmes  not  already  been  sent,  but  depended  on 
my  answer,  I  should  have  written  at  once,  if  even  only  a  line, 
to  say  how  glad  I  should  be  both  to  see  and  know  him,  both 
:as  his  father's  son,  as  your  friend,  and  as  one  whose  personal 
history  has  already  been  such  as  your  letter  intimates. 
Among  the  countless  and  inexhaustible  blessings  which  you, 
from  your  national  struggle,  will  in  the  end  bring  forth  for 
the  human  race,  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  that  they  have 
behind  them  so  many  who,  being  what  your  friend  was,  have 
done  what  he  has  done.  Such  men  are  the  natural  leaders  of 
the  democracy  of  the  world  from  this  time  forward ;  and  such 
a  series  of  events,  coming  upon  minds  prepared  by  previous 
high  culture,  may  well  have  ripened  their  intellects,  as  it 
cannot  but  have  fitted  their  characters,  for  stepping  into  that 
vacant  post  and  filling  it  with  benefit  to  the  world. 

The  new  struggle,  in  which  you  are  now  engaged,  that  of 
reconstruction,  is  well  fitted  to  carry  on  the  work  of  educating 
the  political  mind  of  the  country.  I  have  learnt  to  have 
great  trust  in  the  capability  of  the  American  people  at  large 
(outside  the  region  of  slavery)  to  see  the  practical  leanings 
of  a  political  question  truly  and  rapidly  when  the  critical 
moment  comes.  It  seems  to  me  that  things  are  going  on  as 
well  and  as  fast  as  could  be  hoped  for  under  the  untoward 
accident  of  getting  an  obstinate  Southern  man,  a  pro-slavery 
man  almost  to  the  last,  in  the  position  of  President.  But  the 
passing  of  the  Civil  Eights  Bill  over  his  head  seems  almost 
to  ensure  the  right  issue  to  the  contest.  If  you  only  keep 
the  Southern  States  out  of  Congress  till  they  one  by  one 
either  grant  negro  suffrage  or  consent  to  come  in  on  the  basis 
•of  their  electoral  population  alone,  they  may  probably  then 
be  let  in  in  safety.  But  the  real  desideratum  (in  addition  to 
colonization  from  the  North)  is  the  Homestead  law  which  you 
propose  for  the  negroes.  I  cannot  express  too  strongly  the 
-completeness  of  my  agreement  with  all  you  say  on  that  point. 
Compared  with  these  great  questions,  free  trade  is  but  a 
secondary  matter ;  but  it  is  a  good  sign  that  this  also  has 
'benefited  by  the  general  impulse  given  to  the  national  mind, 


'220  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII, 

and  that  the  free  traders  are  raising  themselves  for  vigorous 
•  efforts.  I  am  not  anxious  that  this  question  should  be  forced 
on  while  the  others  are  pending ;  for  anything  which  might 
detach  the  Western  from  the  Eastern  States,  and  place  them 
in  even  partial  sympathy  with  the  South,  would  at  present  be 
a  great  calamity. 

I  have  often  during  the  years  since  we  met  in  Vienna 
wished  that  I  could  talk  with  you,  but  always  found  some- 
thing more  urgent  to  do  than  to  resort  to  the  unsatisfactory 
mode  of  communication  by  letter,  and  this  is  still  more  the 
case  now  that  I  have  allowed  new  and  onerous  duties  to  be 
placed  upon  me.  They  are  not  nearly  so  agreeable  to  myself, 
and  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  they  will  be  as  useful  as 
that  of  writing  out  my  best  thoughts  and  putting  them  into 
print.  I  have  a  taller  pulpit  now,  but  one  in  which  it  is 
impossible  to  use  my  best  materials.  But  jacta  est  alea,  I 
must  make  the  best  I  can  of  it;  and  I  have  had  thus  far 
much  more  of  what  is  called  success  than  I  could  have  hoped 
for  beforehand. 

I  am,  dear  Sir, 

Ever  sincerely  yours, 

J.  S.  MILL. 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
June  20M,  1866. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — I  wish  it  were  not  just  two  hours 
before  J —  -  goes  with  the  letters.  Another  time  I  will 
write  on  Sunday,  instead  of  waiting  until  Wednesday.  My 
despatches  are  finished,  but  I  shall  be  interrupted  twenty 
times  by  correcting  the  copies  thereof.  Moreover,  there  is  a 
fine  instinct  by  which  visitors,  especially  travelling  com- 
patriots, always  discover  that  Wednesday  between  twelve  and 
half-past,  being  despatch  day,  is  exactly  the  proper  moment 
to  select  for  a  friendly  visit. 

The  noble  three  hundred  and  fifty  who  compose  the  Vienna 


I860.]  OUTBREAK   OF   THE  WAR.  221 

world  are  gone  into  their  "  earths,"  or  to  the  waters.  The 
whiskered  young  pandoors  and  dancing  hussars  have  all 
danced  off  to  the  front,  and  we  are  expecting,  before  many 
weeks  have  passed,  to  hear  of  some  tremendous  and  terrible 
battle. 

If  the  weather  were  only  a  little  more  encouraging,  I 
should  rejoice  in  the  leafy  solitude  of  my  garden.  But  you 
know  the  howling  and  blusterous  nature  of  a  Vienna  June, 
and  to-day  and  day  before  yesterday  it  has  been  out-doing 
itself. 

The  Dips,  are  all  here,  of  course,  save  the  Werthers,1  who 
took  their  sad  departure  four  or  five  days  ago  at  7  A.M., 
attended  at  the  station  by  the  faithful  d'Ayllons,  one  and  all. 
Had  it  been  in  the  evening,  I  should  have  gone,  for  all  like 
and  respect  Werther  himself. 

That  blessed  Ambassador  of  the  Sublime  Porte  has  a  gala 
dinner  next  Monday,  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the  Grand 
Turk's  accession  to  the  throne  of  his  ancestors,  and  so  we 
are  all  obliged  to  turn  out  in  mufti.  If  it  happens  to  be  a 
hot  day,  as  may  well  be  the  case,  I  for  one  shall  sincerely 
wish  that  the  said  Sultan's  predecessor  had  had  the  present 
incumbent  bow-stringed  or  drowned  in  his  tender  infancy, 
according  to  the  good  old  Turkish  custom. 

The  first  constitutional  step  of  a  new  Sultan  on  the  death 
of  his  father  used  to  be  to  cause  all  his  brothers  and 
sisters,  amounting  usually  to  fifty  or  sixty  in  number,  to  be 
drowned  like  blind  puppies  in  the  Bosphorus.  But  the 
good  old  customs  and  traditions  of  this  world  are  fast  passing 
away. 

What  do  you  think  of  the  Bund  dying  at  last  of  old  age  ? 
It  is  mortifying  to  me,  in  a  personal  point  of  view,  as  we  are 
both  of  an  age.  To  be  sure  it  has  just  voted  itself  indis- 
soluble, and  so  might  I.  I  feel  in  writing  to  you  that  I 
ought  to  say  something  serious  of  European  politics ;  but  I 
have  to  be  so  serious,  solemn,  and  idiotic  in  my  despatches, 
that  I  feel  inclined  to  say  with  Mephistopheles  (whose  ac- 
quaintance you  said  you  were  about  making)  when  he  throws 

1  The  Prussian  Minister,  leaving  on  account  of  the  commencement  of  hostilities. 


222  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

off  the  doctor's  gravity  gown,  in  which  he  has  been  gravely 
chaffing  poor  Wagner,  and  says, 

"Icli  bin  des  trocknen  Ton's  nun  satt 
Muss  wieder  recht  den  Teufel  spielen." 

I  hardly  know  which  way  my  sympathies  lie  in  this  tremen- 
dous struggle  just  opening.  It  is  impossible  not  to  have  a 
strong  feeling  for  Austria,  for  she  considered  Venice  her  pro- 
perty just  as  much  as  Styria.  From  her  point  of  view,  the 
treaties  of  1815  are  as  sacred  as  Holy  Writ.  She  believes  in 
right  divine,  in  Durchlauchts,  and  K.  K.s  of  all  kinds  as 
devoutly  as  Abraham  Lincoln  ever  believed  in  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people. 

The   excellent  old ,   in  gorgeous  array,  holding  the 

sword  of  state  and  other  baubles,  believes  in  it  all  with  as> 
much  confiding  simplicity  and  loyalty  as  we  repose  in  our 
manifest  destiny  principles  on  July  4th.  One  must  try  to  get 
into  other  people's  minds,  must  try  to  look  objectively  at  the 
world's  events,  if  one  would  attain  to  anything  like  philosophy. 
I  don't  mean  that  we  are  to  think  and  feel  as  those  do  whom 
we  contemplate ;  far  from  it.  But  we  must  try  to  understand 
them  a  little. 

The  man  in  the  moon  may  be  an  excellent  person  in  his 
way,  I  don't  doubt  it.  But  they  say  there  is  no  atmosphere 
there,  consequently  no  liquids.  His  views  on  the  temperance 
question  must  differ  from  ours.  He  can't  swallow  probably 
at  all.  From  his  point  of  view  all  our  guzzlings  and  muz- 
zlings  must  seem  reprehensible.  Well,  there  is  no  popular 
atmosphere  here.  The  man  in  the  moon  can't  comprehend 
Americanism.  For  the  time  being  he  has  it  all  his  own  way. 
But  he  is  getting  antiquated,  passing  away  perhaps. 

It  used  to  be  said  that  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  Schleswig-Holstein  shall  not  pass  away.  Yet  there  are 
symptoms  of  changes  in  the  universe.  This  brings  me  to  the 
point.  Suppose  that  Austria  is  quite  conquered  in  this  great 
tussle.  What  are  the  results  ?  Prussia  is  aggrandised.  She 
swallows  Hesse-Cassel,  Schleswig-Holstein  (which  is  already 
done),  Hanover,  Brunswick,  Saxony,  "churches  and  steeples 
and  all  the  good  peoples."  The  question  will  then  arise,  Will 


1866.]  THE  FUTUEE   OF  PRUSSIA.  223' 

she  make  the  same  complaint  as  did  the  eminent  Robin  to 
Bobbin  ?  I  should  say  not.  I  think  she  would  only  be  too 
well  satisfied.  She  would  have  rounded  out  that  celebrated 
"  sclimalen  Leib "  of  hers,  and  would  begin  calmly  to  digest. 
She  will  have  got  the  Main  line.  She  is  shaped  now,  as  you 
will  perceive  by  looking  on  the  map,  exactly  like  a  wasp. 
But  there  is  a  future — a  possible  future  for  Prussia.  It  may 
one  day  become  liberal  as  well  as  powerful.  Intellectually 
and  industrially  it  is  by  far  the  leading  power  in  Germany. 
Constitutionally  it  may  become  free.  It  is  now  a  military 
despotism.  The  hard-cutting  instrument,  which  is  now  per- 
sonified in  my  old  friend  Bismarck,  may  do  its  work  by 
cutting  away  all  obstacles  and  smoothing  the  geographical! 
path  to  Prussia's  great  fortune.  Bismarck  is  a  man  of  great 
talent  and  of  iron  will.  Probably  no  man  living  knows  him 
more  intimately  than  I  do.  He  too  believes  in  his  work  as 
thoroughly  as  Mahomet  or  Charlemagne,  or  those  types  of 
tyranny,  our  Puritan  forefathers,  ever  believed  in  theirs. 

He  represents  what  is  the  real  tendency  and  instinct  of 
the  whole  Prussian  people,  from  King  William  to  the  most 
pacific  Spiessbiirger  of  Potsdam.  They  all  want  a  great 
Prussia.  They  all  want  to  Borussifise  Germany.  Only  they 
want  to  do  it  pacifically,  God  save  the  mark  !  As  if  it  were 
possible  to  make  an  omelette  without  breaking  eggs.  As  if 
the  electors  and  grand  dukes  and  other  little  fishes  would  put 
themselves  of  their  own  accord  into  the  Prussian  frying-pan. 
Well  then,  suppose  Prussia  victorious,  there  is  a  great  intel- 
lectual and  powerful  nation,  which  may  become  a  free  nation, 
in  the  very  heart  of  Europe  able  to  counterbalance  France 
when  it  is  a  despotism,  and  to  go  hand-in-hand  with  it  should 
that  nation  ever  be  free  again.  There  will  be  a  few  grand 
dukes  and  roitelets  the  less. 

But  they  have  no  longer  raison  d'etre.  Your  mother 
already  sees  an  advantage  in  the  fact  that  the  diplomatic 
corps  will  be  diminished  in  numbers,  and  fewer  wall-flowers 
for  the  salons.  But  I  tell  her  that  is  a  narrow  view  of  the 
subject. 

As  for  Venice,  she  will  cease  to  be  a  disturbing  element  in- 


224  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

the  European  system  so  soon  as  she  has  gravitated  into  Italy, 
always  supposing  that  the  black  gentleman  who  lives  in  the 
Tuileries  does  not  come  down  upon  his  Faust  at  Florence  too 
soon  and  claim  his  soul  and  body  together.  On  the  other 
hand,  suppose  that  Austria  overwhelmingly  conquers  Prussia 
and  gets  to  Berlin  (as  she  expects)  and  dictates  peace  there, 
and  re-annexes  Silesia,  and  having  squashed  her  northern  foe, 
turns  her  whole  force  upon  Italy,  Victor  Emmanuel  will  be 
awfully  mauled.  Down  comes  the  gentleman  from  the  Eue  de 
Eivoli,  occupies  Piedmont  provisionally,  sticks  in  Kome,  sends 
an  occupying  force  to  Naples,  and  the  last  condition  of  Italy 
is  worse  than  the  first. 

Austria,  which  contains  eight  millions  of  civilised  Germans 
and  nearly  thirty  millions  of  Asiatics  in  sheep-skins  and  in 
tight  pantaloons  inside  their  boots,  becomes  once  more  the 
leading  German  power,  and  all  the  Serenites  and  Highnesses 
big  and  little  whisk  their  tails  again  and  frisk  about  from 
Croatia  to  Frankfort,  from  Trieste  to  Sicily. 

At  present  "  On  to  Berlin  !  "  is  the  slogan, 

It  is  nonsense  for  me  to  talk  to  you  of  military  matters. 
Of  course  newspapers  give  events  as  they  occur  sooner  than  I 
can  write  them  to  you.  I  should  say  that  the  game  is  a  very 
even  one  at  starting. 

All  send  love  to  you ;  and  I  am  your  most  affectionate, 

Aged  P. 


To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

July  3rd,  1866. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — I  daresay  you  will  think  that  I  ought 
to  write  to  you  once  in  a  while  about  political  matters. 

I  hardly  know  why  it  is,  but  I  have  taken  this  war  en 
grippe  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  as  much  as  I  can  do  to 
read  the  daily  telegrams  and  follow  the  course  of  the  battles 
as  they  roll  about  hither  and  thither. 

I  suppose  the  reason  of  my  want  of  interest  is  that  I  don't  yet 
see  the  great  good  to  come  out  of  it  for  anybody.  Since  the 
war  actually  began,  I  have  not  written  a  despatch  to  the  United 


I860.]  CONDITION  OF  AUSTRIA.  225 

States  Government.  I  wrote  every  week  until  the  entrance  of 
the  Prussians  into  Holstein  ;  as  early  as  February  I  expressed 
my  conviction  that  the  war  this  summer  was  inevitable. 

Prussia  and  Italy  are  two  conspirators,  combining  with  the 
Prince  of  Darkness,  who,  for  the  time  being,  has  thought 
proper  to  assume  the  appearance  of  a  Sovereign  of  France 
and  to  inhabit  the  Tuileries. 

Consequently,  although  I  see  no  especial  advantage  in  the 
continued  existence  of  great  military  empires  anywhere  in 
Europe,  yet  I  see  no  good  to  be  gained  to  humanity  in 
breaking  up  this  one  and  sharing  it  among  those  said  three 
conspirators. 

To  be  sure,  Venice  ought  to  belong  to  Italy,  geographically 
and  ethnographically.  But  where  would  poor  dear  Austria 
be  if  she  stripped  herself  successively  of  all  her  nationalities  ? 
She  would  vanish  into  space.  She  is  only  a  heterogeneous 
bundle  that  was  patched  up  fifty  years  ago  at  the  Congress  of 
Vienna.  Still  she  is  a  political  organism,  and  the  first  instinct 
of  all  organisms  is  to  preserve  their  own  lives  when  assailed. 
If  she  says  to  you,  therefore,  II  faut  vivre,  you  can't  expect 
her  to  be  satisfied  with  your  Je  n'en  vois  pas  la  necessite, 
philosophical  as  it  may  be.  You  see  I  am  only  speaking 
sentimentally. 

It  is  then,  after  all,  mainly  as  a  military  spectacle  that  the 
present  war  has  interest.  And  I  hate  military  spectacles. 
Yes,  I  confess  to  a  good  deal  of  Schadenfreude  at  the  spec- 
tacle of  imbecility  presented  by  the  blessed  old  Bund.  I  do 
hope  that  she  at  all  events  will  get  her  burial  ticket,  and 
be  decently  entombed  now  at  the  public  expense. 

I  think  Austria  ought  to  be  the  very  one  to  wish  it  the 
most.  And  this  brings  me  round  to  the  actual  position  of 
things  (as  they  exist  on  this  midwinter  morning 'of  July  3rd, 
with  a  roaring  wind  and  a  black  sky,  and  a  bitter  atmosphere, 
such  as  Vienna  delights  in  at  this  season).  You  are  doubtless 
wondering  whether  Benedek  is  an  overrated  and  "half-dis- 
couraged hay -rick,"  or  whether  he  is  yet  going  to  do  something 
surprising. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  keep  at  all  near  the  current  of 

VOL.  II.  Q 


226  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

events  as  they  flow  to  you  unless  I  speak  of  the  future. 
Everything  known  to  be  at  this  moment  of  actual  occur- 
rence will  of  course  be  known  to  you  in  detail  through  the 
public  press  before  this  letter  reaches  you.  I  shall  therefore 
pre-suppose  that  you  read  the  public  narratives,  and  that  you 
are  provided  with  good  maps.  You  are  to  remember  that 
Benedek  was  a  good  corps  commander  in  Italy.  Whether  he 
can  handle  200,000  men  as  well  as  he  did  40,000,  there  is 
the  whole  question,  one  we  used  to  hear  occasionally  in 
America.  At  first  sight  it  looks  as  if  he  had  been  out- 
generalled.  The  Prussians  have  been  as  nimble  as  cats.  They 
have  occupied  Saxony,  Electoral  Hesse,  Hanover,  whisked 
three  potentates  off  their  thrones,  neutralised  at  least  50,000 
deutsche  Krieger  of  the  B.O.B.  (Blessed  old  Bund,  as  for 
convenience'  sake  I  will  henceforth  denominate  the  Germanic 
confederation),  and  are  now  in  position  on  the  heights  of 
North  Bohemia.  The  two  armies  of  Frederick  Karl  and  of 
the  Crown  Prince,  beginning  their  movements  respectively  in 
Saxony  and  in  Silesia,  have  effected  their  junction  thoroughly 
at  last,  after  the  combats  of  the  last  three  or  four  days  of 
June  at  Skalitz,  Nachod,  Trautenau,  Gitschin,  and  so  on. 
Benedek,  retreating  from  the  line  of  the  Iser,  which  is  now 
entirely  in  Prussian  hands,  seems  to  occupy  a  very  strong  isos- 
celes triangle,  composed  of  Koniggratz,  Pardubitz,  Podiebrado. 
With  a  railroad  on  two  sides  of  him,  and  strong  fortresses  at 
his  back,  and  a  gentle  rolling  plain  within  his  triangle,  thickly 
sown  with  swamps  and  little  meres,  if  the  Prussians  are  only 
good  enough  to  come  into  his  triangle,  he  is  very  likely,  I 
think,  to  "  smash  them  to  triangles." 

They  have  almost  as  fair  a  chance  of  coming  to  grief  as 
Victor  Emmanuel  had  the  other  day  when  he  walked  into 
Archduke  Albert's  quadrangle.  The  only  excuse  I  have  ever 
heard  for  that  royal  warrior's  stupendous  strategy  was  that  it 
was  "taking  the  bull  by  the  horns."  But  what  sensible  man 
ever  did  take  a  bull  by  the  horns  ?  The  King  has  been  tossed 
back  at  least  a  month  by  this  heroic  effort.  I  doubt  if  the 
Prussians  will  be  so  stupid.  They  can  go  to  Prague  if  they 
like  to-morrow,  make  themselves  happy  there,  do  what  they 


1866.]  BENEDEK'S  STRATEGY.  227 

like  with  its  plexus  of  railways,  levy  contributions,  forage  on 
the  enemy,  and  make  Benedek's  life  hateful  to  him  until  he 
comes  forth  to  attack  them  on  their  own  terms.  The  next 
week  or  ten  days  will  show.  Now  you  will  say  that  Benedek 
must  have  had  an  original  plan  of  some  kind.  He  did. 

P told  me  some  weeks  ago  that   Gablenz   had  written 

to  a  friend  here  expressing  raptures  with  the  Feldherr's 
plan.  Noiv  we  all  see  what  that  plan  was,  and  are  in  but 
mediocre  raptures.  Then  he  held  the  Iser  line  and  the 
Josephstadt,  Trautenau,  Pardubitz  line,  with  the  Prag  Olmiitz 
line  for  his  base.  Always  a  triangle.  But  his  army  was 
a  great  wedge,  which  was  to  be  inserted  between  the  twa 
Prussian  armies  (of  the  Elbe  and  of  Silesia),  and  to  split 
them  wider  and  wider  asunder.  Now  the  proof  of  the  wedge 
is  in  the  splitting,  and  the  Prussian  armies,  instead  of  being 
separated,  have  coalesced,  and  Benedek's  cake  is  dough. 
Therefore  we  naturally  cry  out  that  the  Feldzeugmeister  is 
an  imbecile. 

People  are  dreadfully  depressed  here.  The  papers  are 
actually  calling  out  for  the  Southern  army  to  be  sent  to 
Bohemia,  which  would  be  equivalent  to  giving  up  Venice. 
Everybody  is  lugubrious.  They  say  .that  nothing  can  stand 
the  Ziindnadelgewehr.  High  officials  ^and  ladies  in  society 
with  sons  in  the  army  are  at  their  wits'  ends,  and  already  see 
the  great  Heerenrnasse  of  the  Empire  reduced  to  a  brigade,  and 
the  Empire  reduced  to  the  Archduchies  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Austria.  In  short,  not  even  after  Bull  Kun  in  America  did 
I  ever  see  so  much  conceit  taken  out  of  a  people  in  the  same 
space  of  time.  Yet  does  it  follow  the  F.Z.M.  is  an  imbe- 
cile ?  Wherefore  ?  I  don't  say  so.  All  the  Bunsby  within 
me  struggles  for  utterance,  and  again  I  come  back  to  the 
B.O.B.  I  don't  think  that  Benedek  has  been  his  own 
master.  The  political  and  diplomatic  game  has  been  per- 
petually interfering  with  the  military  one.  I  believe  it  to  be 
an  admitted  fact  that  in  a  war  between  Austria  and  Prussia 
the  possession  of  Saxony  and  the  frontier  ridges  of  Bohemia, 
Silesia,  and  Saxony  are  more  than  three-quarters  of  the  game. 
As  everybody  knows  that,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  F.Z.M. 

Q  2 


228  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

was  ignorant  of  it.  Count  Mensdorff  told  me  more  than 
three  months  ago,  while  all  that  war  of  despatches  and  notes 
was  going  on,  that  the  military  people  were  all  dissatisfied 
and  anticipated  the  probability  of  some  great  disaster  at  the 
beginning  of  the  campaign  (if  war  could  not  be  avoided)  by 
reason  of  the  want  of  preparation.  He  had,  however,  taken 
the  responsibility  of  advising  the  Emperor  to  defer  arming 
and  every  warlike  step  in  order  to  show  the  good  faith  of 
Austria  and  its  determination  to  keep  the  peace.  There  is  no 
more  sincere,  straightforward,  chivalrous  man  in  the  world 
than  Count  Mensdorff;  but  I  think  advantage  has  been  taken 
of  this  frankness  by  the  enemy.  The  object  of  the  Austrian 
Government  was  to  come  with  clean  hands  to  the  B.O.B., 
prove  her  own  pacific  proceedings,  and  get  the  vote  of  the 
B.O.B.  against  Prussia  as  the  peace-breaker. 

Well,  Austria  succeeded.  By  nine  to  six  the  B.  0.  B. 
declared  Prussia  "  Bundesbruchig ; "  Article  XI.  was  duly 
brandished  in  her  face,  and  mobilization  of  the  Bund  army 
was  solemnly  decreed.  Well,  what  is  the  result?  Not  an 
individual  B.O.B.  musket  has  yet  been  seen  at  the  seat  of 
war.  Meantime  Prussia  has  swept  the  Elector  of  Cassel,  the 
King  of  Hanover,  the  King  of  Saxony,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
Prince  of  Augustenburg,  off  the  board ;  has  gobbled  19,000 
Hanoverians  under  the  very  nose  of  Bavaria,  and  is  carrying 
the  war  into  the  very  bowels  of  Bohemia.  Now  it  isn't  to  be 
supposed  that  Benedek,  could  he  have  had  his  own  military 
way,  would  have  looked  on  with  composure  at  these  bustling 
proceedings.  Prussia  has  been  very  "  spry."  But  it  would 
have  been  easier  for  Austria  to  occupy  Saxony  (with  the  con- 
sent of  its  king)  than  for  Prussia  to  do  it  without  this  consent. 
But  then  the  B.O.B.  would  perhaps  have  called  Austria  the 
peace-breaker,  and  contented  itself  with  armed  neutrality. 
And  what  is  the  position,  after  all,  but  armed  neutrality  ?  I 
don't  believe  that  Bavaria,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Baden  will  keep 
out  of  the  fight  (there  are  no  other  States  worth  talking  about), 
in  spite  of  the  mobilization  decree,  until  they  see  which  of  the 
two  belligerents  is  successful.  They  might  have  saved  the 
Hanoverian  army  by  lifting  their  finger.  I  say  nothing  of  the 


1866.]  THE  BUND.  229 

Elector  of  Hesse  Cassel.  His  incarceration  at  Stettin  is  great 
fun  for  everybody,  and  has  occasioned  prolonged  and  general 
hilarity. 

It  was  a  part  of  the  political  military  programme  that  a 
great  army  should  be  sent  by  the  B.O.B.  against  Berlin, 
moving  from  Frankfort  through  the  Thuringian  country 
towards  the  Prussian  plains.  Probably  Benedek  was  obliged 
to  take  this  into  his  general  plan  ;  and  if  those  imaginary 
150,000  Bavarians,  Hessians,  Badians,  and  the  rest  of  them 
had  really  marched  to  the  rear  of  Frederick  Karl's  army,  those 
two  Prussian  princes  would  not  have  been  going  it  so  easy  in 
Bohemia  just  now. 

The  truth  is,  people  have  been  persisting  in  believing  that 
the  Bund  was  a  reality.  There  was  a  habit  of  speaking  of  the 
Diet  at  Frankfort  as  if  it  were  a  congress,  a  parliament,  a 
national  assembly  of  some  sort ;  whereas  the  Bund  is  nothing 
but  a  perpetual  treaty  between  a  couple  of  dozen  or  so  of 
monarchs,  great  and  small,  and  the  Diet  is  a  conference  of 
their  envoys  and  plenipotentiaries. 

There  will  be  one  or  two  good  things  to  result  from  this 
war.  The  number  of  kinglings  will  be  pretty  considerably 
diminished,  the  old  Bund  will  be  buried,  and  I  think  that 
Austria  may  be  induced  to  give  up  that  source  of  weakness 
for  her,  Yenetia. 

Meantime  I  think  you  will  hear  of  a  big  fight  very  soon  in 
Bohemia,  and  I  feel  by  no  means  sure  that  Austria  may  not  be 
the  victor.  You  see  I  am  very  objective  in  my  whole  epistle. 
Intellectually  I  can  imagine  that  a  great  Prussia  may,  after  a 
generation  or  two,  be  better  than  what  now  exists.  But  the 
first  result  of  a  great  Prussian  success  will  be  a  bumptiousness 
without  parallel. 

P.S. — I  add  a  postscript  to  my  letter  of  yesterday  merely  to 
say,  what  you  have  already  said,  no  doubt,  that  I  have  given 
another  example  of  how  good  it  is  "  never  to  prophesy  unless 
you  know."  However,  I  prophesied  on  purpose,  and  intend 
always  to  prophesy  when  I  write  to  you,  because  it  will  be  an 
amusement  to  you  when  I  am  wrong  and  a  glorious  satisfae- 


230  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII 

tion  when  I  happen  to  be  right,  and  because  if  I  don't 
prophesy  I  had  better  not  write  at  all.  When  these  humble 
lines  reach  you,  you  will  already  know  the  details  of  yester- 
day's great  battle.  Yet  I  know  absolutely  nothing  at  this 
moment,  save  a  telegram  published  this  morning  from  head- 
quarters in  an  extra  Wiener  Zeitung,  and  dated  10.50  P.M., 
3rd  July,  that  the  Austrian  army,  after  having  had  the  advan- 
tage up  to  2  P.M.,  was  out-flanked  and  forced  back,  and  that 
the  headquarters  are  now  at  Swiniarek,  on  the  turnpike  to 
Hohenbruck. 

If  you  look  on  the  map,  you  will  see  that  this  means,  I  fear, 
that  the  Austrian  army  has  retreated  across  the  Elbe  and  given 
up  its  whole  position. 

It  would  seem  that  Benedek  never  fairly  got  his  army  into 
the  comfortable  triangle  which  I  prepared  for  them  in  the 
beginning  of  this  letter,  and  that  the  Prussians,  instead  of 
wasting  time  at  Prague,  have  gone  in  to  win  with  their  double 
army  against  the  whole  Austrian  army.  It  looks  awfully  black 
for  Austria  at  this  moment,  I  fear.  They  have  been  jockeyed 
by  the  South- Western  States,  and  the  Bund  army  has  been 
mobilized  for  the  purpose  of  remaining  immovable.  My  heart 
aches  at  the  misery  which  the  details  of  yesterday's  work  will 
bring  forth.  The  mourners  will  be  going  about  the  streets  from 
henceforth,  if  the  action  has  been  as  general  a  one  as  the  tele- 
grams indicate.  There  is  hardly  a  family  here  some  of  whose 
members  are  not  at  the  front.  And  they  believe  as  firmly  in 
their  cause  as  we  ever  did  in  ours.  I  hate  the  flippant  tone  of 
my  letter ;  but  I  can't  help  it. 

We  are  all  going  out  to  dine  at  the  Gramonts',  at  Modling, 
to-morrow. 

The  Bronsons  (of  Eoman  memory)  dined  with  us  yesterday, 
having  been  to  Jerusalem  with  four  small  children. 

Ever  your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


1866.]  ACTION  OF  LOUIS  NAPOLEON.  231 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

July  nth,  1866. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — I  ought  to  write  long  letters  to  you 
from  this  half-beleaguered  city  by  every  post.  Nothing  would 
give  me  greater  pleasure,  only  as  I  am  obliged  to  write  to  the 
Department  by  every  steamer,  and  as  my  letters,  if  they  are 
not  to  be  idiotically  ignorant,  must  be  written  at  the  last 
minute,  you  perceive  that  my  time  is  awfully  limited.  As  to 
giving  you  news,  that  is,  of  course,  hopeless.  I  trust  that  you 
have  some  journals  that  will  keep  you  up  with  the  current  of 
events,  battles,  marches,  and  the  like,  as  well  as  I  could  do 
and  much  sooner. 

I  can  please  you  best,  I  think,  by  giving  you  a  kind  of 
appreciation  of  the  actual  condition  of  things  at  the  moment 
I  write. 

Ten  days  ago  Louis  Napoleon  was  considered  by  his  flatterers, 
and  perhaps  himself,  during  a  period  of  twenty -four  hours,  as 
master  of  the  situation.  Accordingly  he  sits  down  at  his 
writing-desk — 

"  Assumes  the  god, 

Affects  to  nod, 
And  seems  to  shake  the  spheres." 

He  writes  an  article  in  the  Moniteur,  orders  that  the  war 
shall  cease,  accepts  Venetia  from  Austria,  informs  Prussia  that 
she  must  at  once  make  an  armistice  or  fight  France,  and  orders 
Italy  to  stop  short  on  pain  of  finding  France  between  her  and 
Austria,  and  with  an  intimation  that  if  she  will  sit  up  on  her 
hind  legs  like  a  poodle  and  beg  for  it,  he  will  one  of  these  fine 
days  toss  her  Venetia  on  certain  conditions. 

It  never  occurred  to  him  that  Italy  might  answer,  "  Is  thy 
servant  a  dog  that  she  should  do  such  things  ?  " 

Paris  swam  in  ecstasy  for  twenty-four  hours,  illuminated 
itself  in  honour  of  the  great  intellectual  victory  achieved  by 
the  omnipotent  and  omniscient  Louis  Napoleon. 

"  Quel  genie  que  notre  empereur  !  "  cry  the  badauds  of  the 
Boulevards. 

It  turned  out  differently.  The  raptures  didn't  last  long. 
To  the  profound  amazement  of  Louis  Napoleon,  the  King  of 


232  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  YIL 

Italy  considered  himself  bound  to  his  plighted  word.  He  had 
promised  not  to  make  peace  without  Prussia,  and  the  whole 
country  was  so  disgusted  and  outraged  at  the  position  in  which 
it  would  find  itself,  should  it  accept  Venetia  from  France  after 
having  been  drubbed  by  Austria  at  Custozza,  that  (even  if  he 
had  been  blessed  with  Napoleonic  morals)  he  could  not  have 
done  as  he  was  bid  without  forfeiting  his  throne.  So  poor 
dear  unlucky  Austria  has  only  added  one  more  blunder  to  her 
long  list  in  thus  abasing  herself  fruitlessly  to  Louis  Napoleon. 
I  can  forgive  her  anything  but  that.  Prussia  meanwhile,, 
with  one  finger  on  her  needle-gun  trigger  and  another  (let 
us  suppose)  upon  her  nose,  laughed  respectfully  in  the  great 
Louis  Napoleon's  face.  And  Louis  Napoleon  had  wisdom 
enough  to  see  that  it  was  not  his  cue  to  fight.  So  he  straight- 
way went  over  to  Prussia  within  a  week  after  his  magnificent 
threats.  Benedetti  was  sent  to  the  head-quarters  of  King 
William  to  intimate  war  to  that  monarch  in  case  he — etc. 

The  moral  of  this  for  Austria  and  for  France  is  very  much 
that  if  you  will  be  a  great  military  power  you  must  keep  up 
with  the  modern  improvements.  Especially  if  you  will  be 
dictator  of  Europe  you  must  have  something  better  than 
muzzle  loaders.  I  allow  myself  here  to  make  a  quotation 
from  my  despatch  this  day. 

It  is  just  two  centuries  since  the  '  Annus  Mirabilis,'  in 
which  Dryden  described  the  position  of  France  in  a  couplet 
as  applicable  now  as  then : — 

"  And  threatening  France,  placed  like  a  painted  Jove, 
Kept  idle  thunders  in  his  lifted  hand." 

If,  however,  those  thunders  had  been  breech-loading- 
thunders  they  would  probably  not  have  been  so  idle,  etc. 

However,  it  isn't  needle  guns  but  the  energetic  will  and  the- 
vivid  intellect,  the  far-reaching  and  steadily  pursued  designs 
of  the  man  who  governs  Prussia,  that  has  gained  these  pro- 
digious triumphs. 

There  is  a  general  panic  in  Vienna.  It  is  supposed  that 
the  Prussians  will  occupy  the  city  within  a  week.  There  is 
much  discouragement,  dissatisfaction,  and  suppressed  indig- 
nation among  the  people.  All  Jewry  has  suddenly  discovered 


1866.]  THE   PRUSSIAN  ADVANCE.  233 

that  it  is  a  portion  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Appli- 
cations from  American  citizens  of  the  Hebrew  persuasion  and 
of  Austrian  domicile  and  nativity  are  frequent,  to  know  what 
I,  as  their  "natural  and  legal  protector,"  propose  to  do  for 
them  when  the  city  shall  be  sacked. 

Mr. informs  me  that  he  has  forty  thousand  florins'  worth 

of  petroleum  somewhere  in  the  vicinity.  Mr. is  taking 

flight,  but  would  like  me  to  "  protect "  his  horses  and  furni- 
ture, and  so  on  and  so  on. 

I  can't  take  some  thousand  barrels  of  petroleum  into  my 
cellar  nor  stable  the  steeds  of  my  compatriot  (?)  in  my  garden, 
so  they  depart  malcontent,  and  will  doubtless,  as  a  tradesman 
in  Pesth,  also  a  United  States  of  America  citizen,  recently 
informed  me  that  he  should  do,  "  write  to  Washington  to  let 
them  know  how  I  fill  out  my  place."  Meantime  the  Prussians 
are  at  Brunn  in  great  force,  and  large  detachments  are  already 
as  far  as  Ober  Hollabrunn  and  Lundenburg.  This  distance  is 
now  nothing.  We  have  an  entrenched  camp  at  Florisdorff, 
just  outside  Vienna,  on  the  other  side  of  the  big  Danube, 
which  will  be  the  basis  of  operations  to  defend  the  line  of  the 
river  from  above  Linz  to  below  Hamburg  (in  Hungary).  If 
Austria  is  insane  enough  to  risk  another  great  battle  for  the 
sake  of  remaining  in  the  Bund  from  which  Prussia  is  resolved 
to  exclude  her,  the  consequence  of  a  defeat  will  be  ruin  to 
her.  If  Prussia  gains  another  Koniggratz  victory  and  dictates 
peace  at  Vienna,  King  William  will  be  crowned  Emperor  of  all 
Germany  before  the  year  is  out.  My  own  instinctive,  rather 
than  reasoning,  belief  is  that  there  will  be  peace  preliminaries 
patched  up  before  the  great  catastrophe  occurs. 

"  On  est  exigeant,"  said  Count  M to  me  a  day  or  two 

ago,  "  mais  le  vainqueur  a  le  droit  de  1'etre.  C'est  un  beau 
joueur  que  M.  de  Bismarck." 

He  almost  admires  Bismarck,  but  he  could  hardly  repress 
his  indignation  when  he  spoke  of  Louis  Napoleon's  proceed- 
ings. It  is  the  general  opinion  in  Vienna  that  a  great  battle 
will  be  fought  this  week,  and  the  expectation  is  almost  as 
general  that  Vienna  will  be  occupied.  I  don't  share  this 
conviction,  nor  the  apprehension  of  pillage  and  violence 


234  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAI>.  VII. 

should  the  event  occur,  and  I  have  got  two  star-spangled 
banners  on  very  long  staves,  one  for  the  street  and  one  for  the 
portico  of  my  "  palace,"  with  a  shingle  four  feet  long  as  sign- 
board of  the  United  States  Legation.  The  Prussians  are  a 
civilised  people,  and  respect  the  law  of  nations. 

Meantime,  at  the  risk  of  being  proved  to  be  incapable  of 
understanding  the  situation  (by  the  very  steamer  which  will 
take  this  letter),  I  repeat  my  belief  that  the  chances  are  in 
favour  of  peace. 

Can  Austria  eat  so  much  of  the  insane  root  as  to  risk  ruin 
twice  for  the  Bund  ?  Meantime  the  B.O.B.  herself  has 
packed  up  her  goods  and  chattels  and  removed  in  an  omnibus 
to  Augsburg,  where  I  hope  she  will  confess  at  last  that  she  is 
dead,  and  write  her  own  epitaph. 

"  Therefore  exhale,"  says  Ancient  Pistol.  I  can't  help 
being  flippant,  although  I  feel  sad. 

Good-bye  and  God  bless  you,  my  dear  child. 

Your  affectionate 

PAPA. 


To  Ms  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
July  25th,  1866. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — When  I  wrote  to  you  last  week  I 
thought  that  some  one  of  the  family  had  already  written  to 
you  all  we  knew  of  young  Lieutenant  Sherman. 

I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  is  alive  and  well. 
As  soon  as  we  heard  of  the  Battle  of  Koniggratz,  in  which  his 
regiment  was  engaged,  we  made  every  effort  to  find  out  about 
him.  Countess  Esterhazy  (Kohan)  informed  us  as  soon  as  she 
received  a  letter  from  her  son,  who  is  in  the  same  regiment 
with  Sherman.  He  mentioned  no  names,  and  we  inferred 
therefore  that  he  had  nothing  to  communicate.  He  (young 
Esterhazy)  had  a  narrow  escape,  his  horse  having  been  killed 
under  him.  He  is,  however,  unwounded.  We  went  to  make 
enquiries  of  the  Eittmeister- Adjutant,  who,  as  we  were  in- 
formed, was  a  friend  of  Sherman's.  He  said  that  he  had  as 


1866.]  LIEUT.   SHERMAN.  235 

yet  heard  nothing  from  him,  but  expected  that  he  would  write, 
in  which  case  he  promised  to  communicate  with  us.  Subse- 
quently I  spoke  with  General  Count  Haller,  Chancellor  of 
Transylvania,  and  proprietor  (Inhaber)  of  the  regiment  in  which 
Sherman  serves.  He  told  me  that  he  was  all  right,  that  he 
was  unhurt,  although  he  had  been  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight. 
He  expressed  much  interest  in  the  young  man,  and,  indeed,  a 
short  time  before,  when  I  happened  to  sit  next  him  at  dinner 
at  the  Turkish  Ambassador's,  he  had  taken  occasion  to  speak 
of  him  voluntarily  to  me  in  warm  terms  as  an  excellent  young 
officer  in  whom  he  felt  a  strong  interest, "  un  tres  Irave  et  gentil 
gargon" 

Day  before  yesterday  I  again  went  to  Countess  Esterhazy, 
who  had  recently  received  a  letter  from  her  son.  He  said 
that  only  one  officer  in  his  regiment  was  killed  and  one 
wounded.  He  mentioned  the  names  of  both.  They  were 
certainly  not  Sherman.  She  was  writing  to  her  son,  and  she 
promised  to  ask  him  to  communicate  all  that  he  knew  about 
Sherman,  and  she  would  let  us  know  all  that  she  heard.  If 
you  will  find  some  means  of  conveying  this  intelligence, 
meagre  as  it  is,  to  Mrs.  Sherman,  the  mother,  who  I  suppose 
lives  in  New  York,  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you.  He  has 
doubtless  found  means  to  send  a  letter  to  her  before  this.  But 
I  can't  help  thinking  that  she  would  be  glad  to  know  that  we 
do  what  we  can  to  learn  about  him,  and  that  we  take  a  very 
warm  and  sincere  interest  in  him.  He  used  to  come  and  see 
us  when  he  had  a  few  days'  leave  of  absence  from  his  old 
station  in  Moravia,  and  he  will  be  doubly  welcome  now  if  he 
should  come  to  Vienna,  the  war,  from  present  appearances  at 
least,  being  near  its  termination. 

You  have  no  idea  how  difficult  it  is  to  find  out  much 
about  individuals.  The  Prussians  being  in  occupation  of 
all  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  and  their  lines  extending  almost 
to  the  very  gates  of  Vienna,  nearly  all  our  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  save  by  way  of  Paris,  is  cut  off. 
Almost  all  the  young  men  whom  we  know  in  the  Austrian 
army  have  been  killed  and  have  come  to  life  again  once  or 
twice  over. 


236  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  VII. 

I  will  now  take  a  new  sheet  and  say  a  few  words  as  to  the 
situation.  I  forget  exactly  what  I  said  in  my  last  letter 
(July  17th).  The  situation  shifts  so  rapidly  that  it  is  difficult 
without  writing  every  day  not  to  seem  antiquated.  Moreover, 
I  am  obliged  to  write  long  despatches  to  Government,  while  I 
would  much  rather  be  writing  to  you,  and  I  become  awfully 
exhausted. 

Nobody  is  likely  to  accuse  the  Germans,  the  Prussian  part 
of  them,  that  is  to  say,  of  slowness.  This  has  been  the  most 
lightning-like  campaign  in  all  military  history.  Look  on 
the  map  of  Germany  and  see  what  has  been  accomplished  in  a 
week  or  ten  days  of  fighting.  At  this  present  moment  the 
headquarters  of  the  Prussian  King  and  Bismarck  are  at  Nikols- 
burg.  This  is  a  chateau  belonging  to  Countess  Mensdorff,  just 
forty  miles  north  of  Vienna.  The  left  of  their  army  touches 
Presberg,  and  would  probably  have  taken  that  city  last  Sun- 
day morning  had  not  the  announcement  of  the  "  Wajfenruhe  " 
for  five  days  rather  dramatically  suspended  the  fight  going  on 
fiercely  at  the  suburb  Blumenau  as  twelve  o'clock  struck. 
The  Prussian  centre  is  spread  over  the  Marchfeld,  that  wide, 
flat  meadow,  twenty-five  miles  in  space,  on  the  left  side  of 
the  Danube,  opposite  Vienna,  in  which  so  many  historical 
battles  have  been  fought,  Aspern  and  Wagram  among  the 
number,  and  in  which,  should  the  present  negotiations  fail, 
a  bloodier  conflict  than  ever  yet  stained  its  turf  will  soon 
decide  the  fate  of  the  Austrian  Empire.  The  Prussian  right 
extends  towards  the  Upper  Danube,  and  menaces  Krems, 
where  the  bridge  has  been  destroyed,  but  where  the  crossing 
with  pontoons  will  perhaps  be  attempted.  The  Austrian  line 
of  defence  is  very  strong.  If  there  were  men  enough  it  would 
be  almost  impregnable.  Its  centre  point  or  basis  is  the 
entrenched  camp  of  Florisdorff,  the  tete-de-pont  where  both 
the  Northern  Eailroad  and  the  turnpike  cross  the  Danube, 
just  as  that  deep,  rapid,  wide,  and  dangerous  river  has  swept 
through  the  portals  of  the  Leopoldsberg  and  Bisamberg  into 
the  open  plains  which  spread  downward  towards  Hungary. 
Up  and  down  from  Presburg  till  westwards  towards  Linz,  a 
distance  of  some  one  hundred  and  thirty  Eoglish  miles,  the 


1866.]  TKOSPECTS  OF  PEACE.  237 

river  must  be  watched  and  guarded.  One  knows  not  at  what 
point  those  audacious  Prussians  may  make  a  fictitious  or  a 
desperate  attempt  to  force  the  river. 

The  two  Austrian  armies  of  the  North  and  the  South,  all 
that  has  been  collected  of  both,  are  now  united  in  one — the 
army  of  the  Danube  under  the  command  of  Field-Marshal  the 
Archduke  Albert,  conqueror  of  Custozza ;  his  chief  of  staff  is 
the  same  General  von  John  who  did  such  effective  service 
lately  on  the  Mincio.  Much  confidence  is  felt  in  the  Arch- 
duke, still  more,  I  fancy,  in  his  man  John.  Benedek  still 
commands  a  corps,  I  believe.  Gablenz  commands  the  camp  at 
Florisdorff.  Such  is  the  military  position.  As  I  said  before, 
look  on  the  map.  Observe  the  position  and  shape  of  Prussia 
when  the  campaign  opened.  She  has  swept  down  from 
Schleswig,  Pomerania,  and  Silesia.  In  a  week  or  two  of  battles 
she  has  conquered  and  occupied  Saxony,  Bohemia,  Moravia, 
and  is  looking  grimly  across  the  Danube  into  the  very  windows 
of  the  Emperor's  palace.  With  her  right  wing,  if  we  consider 
her  whole  mighty  army  as  one,  she  has  demolished  Bavaria 
and  the  other  south-western  states,  and  she  has  occupied 
Frankfort.  All  Germany  is  in  her  grasp  or  at  her  feet. 

The  famous  Main  Line,  so  long  the  object  of  her  persistent 
and,  as  it  was  thought,  her  fantastic  ambition,  is  as  much  in 
her  possession  as  the  Unter  den  Linden  of  Berlin.  That 
boundary,  which  now  encloses  all  North  Germany  and  makes 
it  one  as  Prussia,  will  be  as  hard  to  take  from  her  as  her  own 
capital.  The  attempt  will  never  be  made,  I  think.  Before 
this  letter  reaches  you  (I  am  writing  Wednesday)  you  will 
have  learned  whether  the  Waffenruhe,  which  ends  at  noon  on 
Friday  next,  has  given  place  to  a  lengthened  Waffenstillstand 
(armistice)  or  to  a  resumption  of  hostilities.  We  are  now  com- 
pletely in  the  dark,  but  being  obliged,  whether  "  I  know  "  or 
not,  to  prophesy,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  expressing  my  belief 
that  the  war  is  over.  And  yet  when  I  write  again  it  is  per- 
fectly  possible  that  I  may  describe  to  you  the  Prussian  occupa- 
tion of  Vienna.  Austrian  Commissioners  at  this  moment  are 
at  the  King's  headquarters  (Karolyi,  old  Count  Degenfeld, 
and  another).  If  Austria  is  not  mad,  she  will  make  peace. 


238  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Prussia  seems  rather  moderate  than  otherwise,  considering  her 
enormous  success.  It  is  understood  that  she  will  take  none  of 
Austria's  territory.  She  will  exclude  Austria  from  the  Bund. 
She  will  claim  permanent  control  of  North  Germany  in  mili- 
tary and  diplomatic  and  external  relations.  As  for  the  Bund, 
it  doesn't  exist.  Even  Frankfort  that  knew  it  knows  it  no 
more.  The  new  Bund  won't  be  a  Bund  at  all.  It  will  be  an 
empire  in  all  save  name — a  great  Prussia — of  which  Hanover, 
the  Saxonies,  Hesses,  and  all  the  rest  of  them,  will  be  provinces, 
self-administering  in  their  local  concerns,  of  which  the  poten- 
tates will  call  themselves  Kings,  Grand  Dukes,  and  the  like, 
although  having  no  armies  of  their  own,  and  no  connection 
with  the  outer  world,  and,  therefore,  no  sovereignty.  There 
will  be  a  German  Parliament,  already  summoned  by  Prussia, 
and  it  is  very  possible  that  before  many  years  are  gone  even 
Bavaria,  Baden,  and  Wiirtemberg,  the  only  powers  not  already 
in  vassalage  to  Great-Prussia  will  acknowledge  her  suzerainty, 
and  send  members  to  the  German  Parliament.  Thus  Austria 
will  be  left  out  in  the  cold.  This  result  will  be  hastened  in 
case  the  war  is  renewed  and  Austria  loses  a  great  battle  in  the 
Marchfeld.  It  will  be  postponed  if  she  should  gain  a  great 
battle.  As  I  said  before,  she  will  make  peace  unless  insane. 
The  only  reason  why  I  doubt  is  found  in  the  hackneyed  pro- 
verb, the  truth  of  which  every  day  in  the  world's  history  proves 
afresh,  "  Whom  God  wishes  to  destroy  he  first  makes  mad." 

The  "  military  party  "  here  is  all  for  war.  The  Archduke 
and  man  John  are  all  for  war.  The  army,  burning  to  wipe  out 
the  defeats  in  Bohemia,  and  conscious  of  unabated  pluck,  is  all 
for  war. 

The  Cabinet  is  for  peace.  The  Emperor  is  for  peace  (I 
think).  It  is  no  joke  to  put  an  empire  on  one  throw  of  the 
dice.  But  if  the  Prussians  throw  sixes  on  the  Marchfeld  next 
week  and  walk  into  Vienna,  exit  Austria  for  ever.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  Austria  should  gain  as  great  a  battle  as  the  one 
she  lost  on  the  3rd  July,  a  new  face  would  be  put  on  affairs. 
Louis  Napoleon,  after  leaving  her  to  drown,  would  "  encumber 
her  with  help,"  after  she  had  reached  the  shore.  Saxony 
and  Hanover  would  put  their  crowns  on  their  heads  again, 


18CG.]  THE  POSITION   OF  ITALY.  239 

and  the  Hapsburgs  would  regain  prestige.  More  than  this  I 
don't  think  it  in  the  nature  of  things  to  accomplish.  Austria 
isn't  likely  to  gain  territory  even  by  a  victory.  She  loses 
none  now.  You  observe  that  I  don't  take  a  heroic  view  of 
matters.  Perhaps  if  I  were  an  Austrian  I  might  feel  differently. 
But  a  looker-on  in  Vienna,  a  bystander,  however  friendly,  shows 
no  heroism  in  counselling  to  or  hoping  for  desperate  action. 
An  Austrian  Empire  is  not  like  an  American  Eepublic.  A 
Hapsburg  is  not  like  a  People-King,  which  cannot,  save  by 
annihilation,  die.  I  see  much  that  is  brave  in  this  people,  but 
I  see  more  that  is  frivolous  and  insouciant.  Still  more  do  I 
see  of  discontent  fast  growing  into  disaffection.  The  signs  of 
the  time  are  ominous.  They  would  be  portentous  if  Vienna 
should  fall. 

Poor  Italy !  Here  she  has  a  fresh  mortification.  It  was 
bad  to  be  defeated  by  the  Archduke  at  Custozza.  It  was 
horrible  to  be  insulted  by  the  transfer  of  Venetia  to  France. 
But  surely  the  deepest  cut  of  all  is  to  have  her  fleet  signally 
conquered,  and  two  ironclads  demolished  by  a  small  Austrian 
squadron,  led  by  a  colonel  of  hussars.  Whatever  our  political 
sentiments,  we  can't  deny  that  the  Battle  of  Lissa  was  a  most 
plucky  affair  on  the  part  of  the  Austrians.  I  am  sure  that 
Farragut  would  shake  Tegetthoff  warmly  by  the  hand. 

The  Italianissimi  are  in  a  most  uncomfortable  position. 
France  gave  them  Lombardy,  Prussia  gives  them  Venice. 
Their  fleet  goes  to  the  bottom  of  the  Adriatic,  and  yet  "  Italia 
far  a  da  se." 

Certainly  it  is  unlucky  to  have  greatness  thrust  upon  her 
when  she  is  all  for  achieving  it.  And,  doubtless,  she  would 
have  achieved  it  had  not  unkind  fate  been  beforehand  with 
her  presents.  The  only  revenge  for  her  will  be  to  ally  herself 
with  Austria  one  of  these  days  and  pitch  into  France. 


240  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
August  7th,  1866. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — I  don't  feel  very  much  inclined  to  write 
to-day,  but  I  daresay  that  you  may  be  expecting  a  letter  from 
"  your  own  correspondent,"  on  the  political  situation. 

The  truth  is  that  the  Atlantic  cable  if  it  prove  a  success 
permanently  (which  is,  I  believe,  still  an  open  question)  will 
ultimately  abolish  the  post-office.  We  are  at  the  beginning 
of  the  new  era,  and  in  some  respects  have  the  inconvenience 
of  two  systems.  The  telegraph  has  not  superseded  the  written 
letter,  because — who  can  pay  a  pound  a  word  ?  At  the  same 
time  the  electric  wire  has  effected  a  kind  of  insulation  for 
human  beings  at  remote  distances.  One  could  formerly 
imagine  oneself  en  rapport  with  one's  correspondent  when 
writing  a  letter. 

Now  when  I  write  to  you,  for  instance,  I  have  the  proud 
consciousnesss  that  I  must  be  either  hazarding  prophecies 
of  twenty  days  ahead  (which  will  be  your  present  when  you 
read  them)  or  else  as  antiquated  as  last  year's  almanac. 

Think  what  effect  this  has  upon  one's  diplomatic  corre- 
spondence. I  might  as  well  write  despatches  about  the  Peace 
of  Westphalia  (in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1648)  as  about  the 
Peace  of  Prague,  the  negotiations  for  which  have  just  begun, 
but  of  which  the  whole  result  will  reach  America  long  before 
any  letters  of  mine  could  get  there.  However,  thank  goodness, 
the  Peace  of  Prague  will  be  a  mere  register  of  the  decrees 
already  issued  by  Prussia  at  Countess  Mensdorff's  chateau 
of  Nikolsburg,  so  that  news  won't  be  expected  of  me.  I 
am  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  grumble  at  the  results  of  the 
war.  Poor  dear  Austria  herself  is  even  better  off  than  before, 
if  she  only  knew  it.  The  funniest  part  of  the  whole  matter 
perhaps  is  that  the  original,  that  is  to  say,  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  war,  "  Schleswig-Holstein,"  is  hardly  ever  men- 
tioned. That  falls  to  Prussia  almost  without  a  word.  Yet 
to  maintain  her  condominium  over  the  two  and  her  temporary 
administration  of  the  one  Austria  apparently  went  to  war. 


I860.]  UNIFICATION     OF   GERMANY.  241 

Apparently — only,  for  the  war  has  been  inevitable  for  years. 
Prussia  has  for  years  been  steadily  increasing  in  population, 
wealth,  and  cultivation,  and  in  all  the  arts  of  war  and  peace. 

Germany  has  for  centuries  been  tending  to  unification. 
The  people  have  been  getting  more  and  more  restive  under 
their  three  dozen  independent  sovereigns,  great  and  small. 
The  Congress  of  Westphalia  recognised  sovereignty  in  more 
than  three  hundred  of  them.  The  Congress  of  Vienna,  a 
century  and  a  half  later,  stewed  them  down  to  thirty-six. 

And  now  they  are  all  rapidly  fading  out.  We  have  a 
dissolving  view  of  Kings  and  Grand  Dukes,  with  nothing 
apparently  stationary  but  one  Emperor  and  one  King,  likely 
for  a  time  to  be  more  powerful  than  any  Emperor. 

Prussia,  whatever  may  nominally  become  of  Saxony, 
Hanover,  Hesse,  and  the  like,  is  sovereign  mistress  of  all 
Germany  north  of  the  river  Main  line. 

And  already  there  are  strong  indications  that  the  popu- 
lations of  South-Western  Germany  will  claim  admission  into 
the  Northern  Union. 

Austria  has  consented  to  be  excluded  from  Germany.  But 
the  inhabitants  of  Baden,  Wiirtemberg,  and  Bavaria  don't 
like  being  excluded  from  it,  and  don't  like  Germany  being 
cut  in  two.  The  dynasties  are  not  very  powerful.  The 
peoples  are  getting  stronger.  Somehow  or  other  there  is  a 
dim  consciousness  in  the  Teutonic  mind  all  over  the  country, 
from  Schleswig  to  the  Carpathians,  that  this  miraculous 
success  of  Prussia  is  not  needle-guns,  nor  her  admirable 
organisation,  nor  the  genius  of  Bismarck,  nor  the  blunders  of 
the  Bund  in  all  its  dotage,  but  the  democratic  principle. 

Prussian  military  despotism,  by  the  grace  of  God,  is  perhaps 
opening  the  way  more  rapidly  for  liberty  in  Europe  than 
all  that  the  Kossuths,  Garibaldis,  and  Mazzinis  could  effect 
in  half  a  century.  If  Germany  becomes  one,  as  may  be  the 
case  in  less  time  than  any  one  now  deems,  she  will  probably 
become  ultimately  free,  whether  called  Empire  or  Kepublic. 
Words  are  no  great  matter.  For  a  beginning,  you  have  got 
an  emperor  over  thirty  millions  of  Germans,  who  calls  him- 
self King,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  dozen  prefects  or  state 

VOL.   II.  R 


242  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

governors,  who  will  for  a  time  make  believe  that  they  are 
kings  and  sovereigns.  But  as  they  have  no  armies  nor 
navies,  nor  the  right  to  hold  intercourse  with  foreign 
countries,  nor  the  right  to  regulate  commerce — and  nothing 
to  do  with  war  or  peace,  they  are  about  as  sovereign  as 
the  states  of  Delaware,  or  North  Carolina,  who  also  play 
they  are  sovereign.  Well,  thus  far  it  is  a  North  German 
Union  with  a  hereditary  chief  at  the  centre,  and  hereditary 
vassals  around  him,  a  central  national  parliament  and  local 
self-government  by  state  legislatures ;  Charlemagnism,  with 
Americanised  institutions.  The  two  strike  one  as  incompa- 
tible. Either  Charlemagnism  must  go  under  or  Americanism. 
A  federation  of  monarchs  on  nominally  independent  terms 
is  possible.  Witness  the  defunct  Bund.  But  an  incorporation 
of  many  hitherto  independent  bodies  into  one  whole  must 
result  either  in  a  grand  military  despotism  or  a  popular 
national  government. 

It  will  be  an  interesting  question  to  see  developed.  Only 
history  for  us  ephemeral  mortals  goes  so  slowly  that  we  can't 
take  in  the  whole  meaning  of  movements  going  on  before 
our  eyes.  The  rhythm  which  always  exists  in  history  is  on 
too  grand  a  scale  for  us  to  comprehend  except  by  looking 
backward  and  forwards. 

"  We  look  before  and  after, 
And  pine  for  what  is  not." 

I  suppose  one  ought  to  have  known  that  in  the  year  1866, 
Bismarck  and  his  King  would  bowl  down  German  sovereigns 
like  ninepins,  in  a  three  weeks'  campaign.  The  question  now 
is,  to  find  out  the  moral  of  it,  and  all  I  say  is  that  it  is 
Democracy.  Jolly  old  William  the  Conqueror,  William  I.  of 
Germany  and  Hohenzollern,  has  about  as  much  idea  of  the 
work  he  is  probably  doing,  as  Sherman's  horse  had  of  the 
Georgia  campaign. 

The  most  consoling  thing  in  the  whole  history  is  to  see 
how  delightfully  Mr.  L.  N has  been  jockeyed.  His  in- 
fluence on  the  continent  of  Europe  is  for  the  time  neutralised, 
and  people  will  begin  to  find  out  before  long  that  a  quack 


1866.]  LOUIS  NAPOLEON.  243 

who  never  did  anything  great  or  good  in  his  life,  while 
always  pretending  to  miraculous  power,  is  neither  a  genius 
nor  a  benefactor,  but  an  intolerable  nuisance.  In  these  great 
transactions  he  has  been  a  cipher.  At  the  same  time  he  has 
earned  the  intense  hatred  of  Italy,  and  the  cordial  dislike 
which  Austria  always  felt  for  him  has  been  increased. 

Prussia  has  amused  and  flattered  him  by  pretending  while 
she  dictated  peace  to  Europe  exactly  according  to  her  sovereign 
will  and  pleasure,  that  L.  ]ST — —  was  mediator. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  diplomatic  soothsayers  could 
look  in  each  other's  faces  without  laughing.  As  the  war  was 
beginning,  all  the  official  papers  of  Paris  were  ordered  to 
shout  in  chorus  that  the  result  of  the  struggle  between  Austria 
and  Prussia  would  be  to  exhaust  and  weaken  both  to  such 
an  extent  that  neither  would  dare  to  say  a  word  or  lift  a 
finger  when  France  at  the  proper  moment  commanded  them 

to  stop  fighting  and  obey  the  decrees  of  L.  N as  master 

of  the  situation. 

The  least  that  said  master  would  put  in  his  own  pocket 
was  Khenish  Prussia  and  Baden  on  one  side,  with  perhaps 
Belgium  and  the  Island  of  Sardinia,  Genoa,  and  perhaps  all 
Piedmont  on  the  other,  with  the  continued  occupation  of 
Kome.  Events  have  not  quite  realised  this  programme. 

On  June  llth,  L.   N 's  famous  letter  to  Drouyn   de 

1'Huys  was  published.  Certain  roundings  off  (heaven  save 
the  mark!)  were  therein  accorded  to  Prussia,  but  no  dis- 
turbances of  the  European  equilibrium  were  permitted  and 
above  all  Austria's  "great  position  in  Germany  was  to  be 
maintained." 

Thus  spake  Sir  Oracle,  and  no  dog  barked.  But  there  was 
much  cracking  of  needle-guns  soon  afterwards.  When  the 
smoke  rolled  away  what  do  we  see  ?  Disturbance  of  equili- 
brium, quotha.  Here  is  a  new  military  empire  of  more  than 
thirty  millions,  united,  wealthy,  compact,  in  place  of  a  stagger- 
ing old  Bund  that  has  been  so  long  trying  for  a  burial  ticket, 
and  has  at  last  got  it. 

What  does  Balance  of  Power  say  to  that  ?  Austria's  "  great 
position  in  Germany "  is  secured  by  her  signing  her  total 

E  2 


244  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CiiAP.  VII. 

exclusion   from  Germany ;    and  this  is  an  instance  of  Louis 
Napoleon,  mediator  and  master  of  the  situation. 

Then  what  could  be  more  ludicrous  than  all  the  shamming 
and  humbug  about  the  cession  of  Yenetia  ?  For  the  space  of 
twenty-four  hours  there  were  people  in  Europe  who  absolutely 
believed  in  it.  Austria  believed  in  it,  but  Italy  and  Prussia 
didn't  believe  in  it  at  all.  The  bill  was  made  out  without 
consulting  the  landlord,  who  turned  out  to  be  the  real  master 
of  the  situation  (as  sometimes  happens). 

Well,  Prussia  is  already  a  greater  power  than  even  she 
dreamed  of  in  her  wildest  flights. 

The  union  of  Italy  and  the  union  of  Germany,  to  prevent 
which  has  been  the  steady  aim  of  Louis  Napoleon,  just  as 
it  was  his  steady  aim  to  assist  Jeff.  Davis  in  destroying 
the  American  Union,  are  in  a  fair  way  of  accomplishing 
themselves  in  spite  of  him.  We  shall  hear  of  no  more  Italian 
Confederacies  with  the  Pope  for  President. 

The  B.O.B.  has  exhaled,  and  Austria  is  left  out  in  the 
cold  (for  her  own  good,  as  I  sincerely  believe) ;  and  so  much 
for  Louis  Napoleon  as  dictator  to  Europe  and  master  of 
the  situation.  Alas,  poor  Louis  Napoleon  !  Where  be  your 
Sardinias  and  your  Genoas  now  ?  Your  Ehenish  provinces 
and  your  Belgiums  ?  Quite  chapfallen.  Go  to  Vichy. 

I  will  not  write  another  political  letter.  As  I  can't  send 
news,  I  will  in  future  supply  you  with  occasional  essays  on 
zoology,  botany,  or  the  differential  calculus — subjects  of  which 
I  am  master  (as  Louis  Napoleon  of  the  situation)  and  which 
are  most  interesting  to  you. 

Of  course  there  is  no  objection  to  your  reading  my  letters 
confidentially  to  your  private  friends,  if  they  wish.  You 
can't  be  too  careful.  We  are  all  well,  and  hoping  to  hear 
from  you  to-day.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  child. 

Ever  your  affectionate 

P. 


1866.]  DESPATCHES  AND   BLUE  BOOKS.  245 

To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

Vienna, 
August  llth,  1866. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — I  have  an  inclination  to  write  a  line 
or  two  to  you  this  morning.  My  repugnance  to  inditing  a 
despatch  is  very  great.  I  have  nothing  to  say,  and  I  feel  such 
a  shiver  when  I  think  that  all  my  platitudes  to  the  Depart- 
ment are  served  up  a  year  or  two  after  date  in  that  odious 
blue-book  system  which  Seward  ought  to  have  had  more  sense 
than  to  imitate. 

It  is  bad  enough  to  be  obliged  to  venture  opinions  and 
prophecies  which  may  prove  ridiculous  in  the  eyes  of  the 
few  to  whom  one's  letters  are  addressed.  But  to  correspond 
with  the  Great  Public  is  the  most  staring  nonsense  of  modern 
days. 

I  am  immensely  struck  with  this  now,  as  side  by  side  with 
my  own  modern  diplomatic  correspondence  I  am  reading 
very  diligently  letters  and  reports  of  Venetian  envoys  in  the 
days  when  the  Kepublic  was  in  its  glory  and  their  Ambasciatori 
the  sharpest,  the  most  influential,  and  the  most  agreeable  in 
the  world. 

I  always  think  when  I  am  reading  the  despatches  of  Soranzo 
or  Contarini  or  Priuli,  and  a  host  of  others,  how  astonished 
the  people  about  them,  kings,  ministers,  generals,  courtiers, 
and  politicians,  would  be,  could  those  despatches  have  been 
published  in  every  newspaper  in  Europe  a  few  months  after 
date,  and  how  exceedingly  agreeable  the  position  of  the  am- 
bassador would  be  if  his  minute,  photographical,  unpitying, 
unexaggerating  and  unextenuating  pictures  of  men  and  events 
around  him  had  been  hung  up  for  the  immediate  inspection 
of  those  most  interested. 

Fortunately  for  literature,  the  system  of  blue-books  wasn't 
invented  then,  or  all  those  magnificent  materials  for  history 
would  never  have  existed.  If  the  future  Dryasdust,  delving 
in  the  United  States  State  Department  as  in  a  histo- 
rical quarry,  finds  no  admirable  blocks  hewn  to  his  hand 
centuries  before  by  the  humble  individual  now  addressing 
you,  let  him  thank  the  tyrant  blue-book.  What  interesting 


246  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Relazioni  I  could  write  if  they  were  for  Government  and  for 
posterity ! 

I  feel  as  much  injured  as  the  excellent  Grumio. 

There  is,  however,  nothing  very  new  to  say.  It  is  melan- 
choly to  see  the  break-down  of  this  House  of  Hapsburg.  They 
seem  to  be  suffering,  as  is  always  the  case,  for  the  sins  of 
former  centuries,  to  say  nothing  of  the  early  part  of  this  one. 
There  are  no  real  catastrophes  in  history. 

Sap  —  sap — sap,  gnaw  —  gnaw — gnaw,  nibble —  nibble  — 
nibble.  A  million  insects  and  mildews,  and  rats  and  mice, 
do  their  work  for  ages,  and  at  last  a  huge  fabric  goes  down  in 
a  smash,  and  the  foolish  chroniclers  of  the  day  wonder  why  it 
tumbles.  The  wonder  was  that  the  hollow  thing  stood.  I 
don't  mean  that  Austria  has  disappeared,  but  the  traditional 
German  Empire  or  Confederation  with  a  Hapsburg  word  to  it, 
the  Austrian  prestige,  the  great  imperial,  military,  dictatorial 
power,  this  is  as  far  off  as  the  empire  of  Cyrus. 

Well,  I  shan't  go  into  philosophical  discussions  in  this 
letter.  You  know  Austrian  "  society "  as  well  as  I  do,  and 
society  so-called  governs  Austria.  It  is  the  last  aristocracy 
extant.  England  is  a  plutocratical  oligarchy  not  an  aristocracy 
of  birth.  In  Austria,  birth  is  everything ;  wit,  wisdom,  valour, 
science,  comparatively  nothing.  Fancy  going  about  in  a 
fashionable  salon  in  Vienna  to  look  for  the  Lyells,  Murchi- 
sons,  Gladstones,  Disraelis,  Tennysons,  Landseers,  Macaulays 
of  Austria,  if  such  there  be.  Fancy  a  London  house  where 
they  would  not  be  welcome  guests.  Well,  thereby  hangs  a 
tale.  Dancing  well,  driving  well,  a  charming  manner,  and 
thirty-two  quart erings,  can't  be  got  to  govern  the  world  in 
these  degenerate  days,  and  so  you  have  Koniggratz  and  the 
Peace  of  Prague. 

Did  any  one  tell  you  that  the  only  man  who  ever  found  out 
Benedek's  "  plan  "  was  the  old  ex-Emperor  Ferdinand.  He 
found  it  out  three  weeks  before  the  war  opened  (they  say), 
and  immediately  left  Prague  and  established  himself  tri- 
umphantly at  Innspruck !  By  the  way,  we  are  getting  a 
curious  collection  of  ancient  relics  here  in  Vienna.  It  will 
soon  rival  the  Ambras  museum  of  old  armour.  The  King  of 


1866.]  THE  KING   OF  HANOVEK.  247 

Saxony,  the  King  of  Hanover,  and  Crown  Prince  the  Duke  of 
Nassau  and  Hesse,  and  a  lot  of  other  discrowned  potentates  are 
thronging  hither.  There  is  a  faint  scent  in  the  atmosphere 
of  mildly  decaying  royalty.  May  not  that  dread  epidemic 
Democracy  burst  out  some  day  in  consequence  ?  I  forgot  to 
tell  you  in  my  last  that  the  King  of  Hanover  wished  to  see 
our  dear  diplomatic  body.  So  we  all  turned  out  in  full  fig 
the  other  day.  The  King  is  living  quietly  at  Knesebeck's, 
his  envoy  having  declined  Schonbrunn,  where  Saxony  lives. 
The  apartment  is  the  same  where  Count  Waldstein  once  dwelt, 
in  the  Wallner  gasse.  You  remember  dining  there  in  his 
time.  The  King  is  very  tall,  personable,  stately,  handsome, 
but  blind.  There  was  something  pathetic  in  seeing  the 
earnestness  and  satisfaction  with  which  he  went  round  the  circle. 

It  lasted  longer  than  any  one  at  the  Burg.  He  paid  the 
expenses  of  the  conversation  with  each  dip.  When  he  came 
to  me  he  could  not  ask  about  the  President's  grandmother  or 
brothers-in-law,  not  knowing  them  personally,  but  he  had  got 
himself  up  a  little,  even  for  me,  with  Knesebeck's  coaching. 
Referred  to  the  civil  war  happily  terminated ;  and  then  to  his 
own  troubles  and  those  of  Germany. 

Not  knowing  what  to  say,  I  mumbled  something  about 
sympathy,  which  I  could  not  help  feeling  at  the  sight  of  this 
blind,  grey,  dis-crowned  Guelph,  who  had  at  least  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  his  battalions  and  done  his  best  to  fight  his 
way  through  for  a  cause,  which  as  it  was  that  of  crowned 
heads  and  the  existing  order  of  things,  he  believed  to  be 
identical  with  that  of  the  human  race.  How  should  he  think 
otherwise  ?  He  caught  at  my  expressions  of  sympathy,  said 
he  felt  much  obliged  to  me  for  what  I  said,  and  that  he  had 
tried  to  do  his  duty  as  he  understood  it.  And  so  he  did. 

All  France  is  furious  at  the  Emperor's  loss  of  prestige,  that 
very  subtle  article,  so  potent,  but  liable  to  evaporate  so  sud- 
denly. I  don't  think  with  Prussia  going  it  so  easy  in  Europe 
that  Louis  Napoleon  will  try  to  pick  up  his  drowning  prestige 
by  the  locks  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  must  assert  himself 
somewhat  nearer  home. 

Your  ever  affectionate 

P- 


248  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

To  Mr.  William  Amory. 

October  18th,  1866. 

MY  DEAR  AMORY, — This  is  a  begging  letter.  There  is  un- 
exampled distress  prevailing  in  many  portions  of  this  empire. 
War,  pestilence,  and  famine  have  made  greater  ravages  in  its 
various  kingdoms  and  provinces,  especially  in  Bohemia,  than 
has  been  recorded  in  European  history  for  a  generation  of 
mankind.  Greater  efforts  are  now  making  by  the  wealthier 
classes  to  relieve  in  some  degree  this  great  amount  of  human 
misery.  Among  other  measures  now  in  contemplation,  a  kind 
of  bazaar  is  to  be  held  in  Vienna  at  some  period  not  yet  fixed 
in  the  course  of  the  coming  winter.  It  will  be  under  the 
direction  of  the  ladies  of  the  country  most  conspicuous  for 
high  station,  wealth,  and  energy  in  good  works.  The  subject 
was  brought  to  my  mind  yesterday  by  Count  Chotek,  a 
gentleman  well  known  to  me  and  distinguished  in  the  diplo- 
matic service  of  the  empire.  I  was  not  asked  for.  either 
contribution  or  subscription.  I  was  simply  asked  to  cause  a 

letter  to  be  conveyed  to  Mr. .     I  volunteered,  however, 

in  addition  to  write  a  private  note  or  two  to  some  of  my 
friends  in  the  United  States,  soliciting  contributions  to  this 
Christian  work.  I  felt  that  there  were  other  generous  and 
kind-hearted  people  in  our  country,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that 
there  has  rarely  been  an  occasion  for  many  years  when  an 
appeal  in  behalf  of  sufferers  in  a  foreign  land  could  more 
legitimately  be  in  aid.  I  know  that  generous  hearts  in 
America  feel  for  human  misery  everywhere,  and  I  know  that 
the  misery  in  this  country  is  appalling. 

I  say  nothing  of  politics.  The  object  of  this  appeal  is  one 
which  is  quite  beyond  the  limit  of  land,  races,  or  political 
institutions  and  circumstances.  I  shall  only  say  that  I  can 
imagine  nothing  more  likely  to  promote  a  kindly  feeling 
between  two  great  nations  so  widely  separated  in  many  ways 
from  each  other,  but  still  two  great  branches  of  the  human 
brotherhood,  as  such  a  spontaneous  manifestation  of  good-will 
and  charitable  sentiment  on  this  occasion.  Certainly  if  the 
consciousness  that  a  gift  is  sure  of  doing  good  in  a  time  of 


18GCJ  SUFFERINGS  CONSEQUENT  ON  THE   WAR.  249 

utmost  need  is  a  sufficient  reward  to  the  giver,  that  reward 
may  on  this  occasion  be  entirely  relied  on.  I  should  further 
state  that  the  mode  to  be  adopted  for  this  bazaar  is  a  lottery — 
a  fee  to  be  charged  of  course  for  the  entrance,  and  such  charit- 
able contributions  as  are  made  in  kind  by  the  residents  of  the 
empire — as  jewels  and  other  objects  of  great  value,  bestowed 
by  the  principal  ladies  of  the  empire  and  other  charitable 
individuals — to  be  the  prizes.  This  form  of  charity  is  con- 
sonant to  the  usages  of  this  country,  is  not  offensive  to  public 
opinion,  and  is  thought  likely  to  be  the  most  productive.  I 
have,  however,  explained  that  there  was  a  deeply  seated  moral 
objection  to  lotteries  in  many  portions  of  our  country,  and 
therefore  whatever  cash  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  able  to 
collect  would  be  simply  handed  over  to  the  committee  as  a 
donation  in  money  to  the  general  fund. 

I  have  written  as  short  a  letter  as  I  could,  my  dear  Amory, 
and  I  feel  confident,  both  from  your  generous  disposition  and 
the  old  and  sincere  friendship  which  has  so  long  existed 
between  us,  that  I  shall  not  have  written  entirely  in  vain. 
The  amount  of  destitution  and  suffering  of  this  poor  people 
cannot  be  exaggerated.  The  Government,  in  the  excessively 
attenuated  condition  of  its  finances,  is  entirely  unable  to 
relieve  all  their  misery,  and  the  population  have  not  the  power 
of  springing  so  elastically  out  of  a  depressed  and  impoverished 
condition  as  have  the  inhabitants  of  our  young  and  favoured 
land.  The  zeal,  energy,  and  generosity  manifested  by  indi- 
viduals of  all  classes,  from  the  highest  to  the  humblest,  in 
giving  relief  during  the  dreadful  war,  by  which  the  whole 
surface  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia  has  been  ravaged,  have  been 
most  touching.  The  great  proprietors,  who  have  of  course 
themselves  suffered  to  an  immense  extent  by  the  invasion, 
have  been  foremost  in  the  good  work,  turning  their  town 
palaces  and  country  chateaux  into  hospitals  and  houses  of 
refuge,  where  the  highest  born  ladies  of  the  land,  as  well  as 
those  of  lower  degree,  have  ministered  daily  to  the  sick, 
wounded,  and  suffering  with  their  own  hands.  We  who  have 
seen  the  noble  exhibition  of  self-devotion,  munificence,  and 
Christian  charity  made  by  all  classes  in  America  during  our 


250  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

four  dreadful  years   of  war,  can   thoroughly  appreciate  and 
sympathise  with  generous  efforts  made  here  to  relieve  distress. 

This  is  entirely  a  private  appeal,  and  it  would  be  therefore 
desirable  that  the  letter  should  not  appear  in  print  on  account 
of  my  official  position,  as  its  publicity  might  perhaps  in  part 
defeat  its  object.  I  send  copies  to  our  excellent  friends 
William  Gray  and  Nathaniel  Thayer,  so  eminent  for  their 
munificence  and  public  spirit.  If  you  are  so  kind  as  to  aid 
me  in  this  matter,  perhaps  you  and  one  or  two  other  gentlemen 
would  collect  such  subscriptions  as  you  can,  and  when  your 
list  is  closed  remit  to  me  in  such  way  as  is  thought  best. 

Mr.  Charles  King,  late  President  of  Columbia  College,  who 
happens  to  be  here  on  a  brief  visit,  has  promised  to  write  for 
the  same  purpose  to  some  of  his  friends  in  New  York.  I  have 
consulted  with  no  one  else,  and  I  wish  to  repeat  that  this  is 
an  entirely  voluntary  movement  on  my  part,  no  hint  of  the 
kind  having  been  made  to  me  by  any  Austrian  subject. 
Ever,  my  dear  Amory,  most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M.1 


To  Lady  William  Russell. 

Vienna, 
November  12th,  I860. 

DEAE  LADY  WILLIAM, — I  don't  like  to  let  this  year  run 
to  a  close  without  sending  a  greeting  to  you.  Even  in  the 
midst  of  our  great  sadness  a  year  ago,  it  was  a  most  sincere 
pleasure  to  me  to  look  upon  you  and  listen  to  you,  in  your 
delightful  home.  I  fervently  hope  that  you  are  going  on 
even  better  in  health  than  you  seemed  to  me  then,  which  was 
much  better  already  than  I  had  been  led  to  suppose.  If  you 
can  find  a  moment  to  send  us  a  word  or  two,  you  know  with 
how  much  sympathy  and  pleasure  they  will  be  received. 
What  a  year  this  has  been !  Do  you  remember  Dryden's  'Annus 
Mirabilis '  ?  But  after  all  this  has  been  a  far  greater  year  of 
wonders  than  that  which  he  sang  of,  and  which  was  exactly 
two  centuries  ago.  What  were  my  old  friends  the  Dutchmen 

1  The  response  to  this  letter  was  a  generous  subscription,  received  with  warm 
gratitude  in  Austria. 


1866.]  CONDITION   OF  AUSTKIA.  251 

banging  away  at  English  fleets  in  the  Thames  compared  to 
the  dance  which  this  blessed  old  Germany  has  been  performing 
this  summer  ?  I  haven't  a  Dryden  here,  and  I  haven't  read 
the  poem  in  question  these  twenty  years,  but  I  think  you  will 
find  a  couplet  therein  to  this  effect— 

"  And  threatening  France,  placed  like  a  painted  Jove, 
Kept  idle  thunder  in  his  lifted  hand."  l 

This  seems  to  me  to  characterise  the  France  of  1866  as  well 
as  1666.  The  worst  of  those  idle  French  themselves  is  that 
everybody  has  been  laughing  at  them.  The  Zundnadelgewehr 
has  proved  so  much  more  practical  than  Louis  Napoleon's 
Ukase  of  llth  June,  1866,  declaring  that  Prussia  might  be 
rounded  out  a  very  little,  but  that  Austria  was  to  preserve  her 
proud  pre-eminence  in  Germany  for  ever  and  aye,  and  so  on, 
and  so  on.  Now  we  have  got  nineteen  Landtage  convoked  for 
November  19th.  It  makes  one  shudder  to  think  of  the  coming 
din  of  Parliamentary  eloquence.  German,  Czech  and  Slav, 
Pole,  Croat,  and  Maygar,  furious  Frank  and  fiery  Hun,  how 
they  will  all  shout  in  their  sulphurous  canopy !  For  seven 
mortal  months  of  last  winter  and  spring,  I  read  those  endless 
speeches  in  the  Pesth  Diet  conscientiously,  almost  believing 
that  something  was  coming  of  it,  and  now  they  are  all  to  be  made 
over  again,  for  not  one  step  towards  an  arrangement  between 
Hungary  and  the  rest  of  this  successor  to  the  Holy  Koman 
Empire — so  called,  as  Yoltaire  long  ago  remarked,  because  it 
is  not  Holy,  not  Eoman,  and  not  an  Empire — has  been  taken. 

There  is  a  kind  of  a  military  party  here,  who  talk  of 
taking  tremendous  revenge  on  Prussia,  and  re-organizing  the 
army,  et  cetera.  The  finances  will  need  a  little  re-organizing 
first,  and  the  interior  affairs.  The  chief  thing  now  is  to 
discover  some  glue  to  stick  the  thousand  pieces  of  the  old 
Empire  together  with.  If  the  Baron  of  Beust  can  make  the 
cement  required,  he  will  deserve  to  be  remembered  in  history. 
Poor  dear  Mensdorff!  Everybody  liked  him.  The  foreign 
representatives  adored  him,  one  and  all.  He  is  one  of  the 
most  charming  types  left  of  the  chivalrous,  truthful,  loyal, 
high-bred,  perfectly  naif  and  perfectly  poco  curante  Austrian. 

1  '  Annus  Mirabilis,'  xxxix. 


252  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Most  deeply  do  I  regret  his  departure  from  office,  for  one. 
People  are  dismal  enough  here,  or  rather  they  are  proposing 
to  be  dismal.  Society  is,  of  course,  out  of  town,  but  they  all 
threaten  that  they  will  not  come  back.  They  will  all  be  vir- 
tuous, and  there  are  to  be  no  more  cakes  and  ale,  no  carnival, 
no  ball  at  Princess  Schwarzenberg's,  nor  Marquise  Pallavicini's, 
nor  Auerspergs,  no  solemnities  at  Court,  no  dinners,  no  dancing 
anywhere. 

"  Credat  Jmlseus  Apella 

Non  ego 

Nee,  si  quid  miri  faciat  natura." 

And  certainly  nature  never  yet  did  anything  so  wonderful  as 
to  prevent  Wiener  Contessen  from  dancing  a  whole  season. 

Sadly  and  seriously,  this  Empire  is  in  a  woeful  plight. 
There  is  deep  mortification,  dissatisfaction,  enormous  distress. 
The  poverty  is  something  awful  to  think  of.  The  great  nobles 
have  been  liberal  and  patriotic  and  charitable,  some  of  them 
energetic  in  relieving  the  awful  misery.  But  alas,  and  alas, 
what  can  individuals  do  ?  There  is  no  self-help,  no  ambition 
in  Austria  herself.  There  is  apoplexy  at  the  top,  atrophy  in 
the  lower  members.  Meantime  Germany  is  constituting  itself, 
and  Austria  is  excluded  from  it ;  and  it  needs  no  ghost  to  come 
from  the  grave  to  say  where  Deutsch  Oesterreich  will  be  ere 
many  years  are  over,  if  the  Empire  does  not  find  some  means 
of  putting  itself  together  again.  The  laws  of  political  attrac- 
tion are  as  inexorable  as  those  of  matter : — 

"  And  when  the  mountain  trembles  from  on  high, 
Shall  gravitation  cease  if  you  go  by  ?  " 

It  would  be  very  convenient  if  it  would,  but  I  fear  there 
are  awful  indications  of  a  catastrophe.  It  may  be  deferred, 
but  I  confess  myself  at  the  end  of  my  Latin  to  discover  how 
it  is  to  be  prevented.  Let  me  conclude  with  an  anecdote 
which  I  heard  yesterday  of  a  Vienna  Fiaker  Kutscher. 

The  street  was  encumbered  by  many  vehicles  as  usual,  es- 
pecially a  vegetable  cart  drawn  by  two  donkeys  obstructed  the 
path.     Out  of  patience  at  last,  the  cabby  bawled  to  the  coster- 
monger,  "  Aus  dem  Wege  da,  mit  deinen  beiden  Feldherren." 
Yours  most  sincerely  and  devotedly, 

VAEIUS. 


18G7J          THE  DUKE  OF  ARGYLL'S  'REIGN  OF  LAW.'  253 

To  the  Duchess  of  Argyll. 

Vienna, 
January  3rd,  1867. 

DEAK  DUCHESS  OF  AKGYLL, — You  were  so  kind  as  to  send 
me,  not  long  ago,  the  Duke's  recently  published  work,  the 
*  Keign  of  Law.' 

I  intended  to  defer  the  pleasure  of  writing  to  you  until  I 
had  read  the  work,  but  I  cannot  resist  the  impulse  to  send  a 
single  line  to  you  now,  wishing  the  Duke  and  yourself  and  all 
yours  a  most  happy  new  year  ! 

I  trust  that  it  may  be  full  of  blessings  to  you  all — and 
believe  me  this  is  our  most  sincere  wish. 

I  have  purposely  refrained  from  reading  the  *  Keign  of  Law' 
until  now,  because  the  important  nature  of  the  work  and  my 
entire  respect  for  the  author  demanded  that  I  should  have 
time,  not  merely  to  read,  but  to  study  it  thoroughly. 

I  have  been,  during  the  last  few  weeks,  obliged  to  give 
every  moment  not  taken  up  with  official  duties  to  finishing 
off  my  two  concluding  volumes  of  the  *  United  Nether- 
lands.' These  are  now  in  Mr.  Murray's  hands,  and  the  labour 
of  many  years  is  brought  to  an  end — I  say  it  with  a  mingled 
feeling  of  sadness  and  relief. 

The  first  fruit  is,  however,  most  agreeable,  as  I  shall  now  at 
once  have  the  pleasure  of  reading  the  Duke's  book,  "  unmixed 
with  baser  matter." 

We  were  most  delighted  at  the  brief  visit  of  Lord  Lome, 
and  regretted  only  that  it  was  so  brief.  He  won  our  hearts  at 
first  sight  by  his  remarkable  resemblance  to  yourself — so  that 
it  seemed  impossible  that  we  were  speaking  to  him  for  the  first 
time.  We  thought  him  also  like  the  Duke. 

It  was  very  kind  of  him  to  come  to  us  on  so  rapid  a  passage 

J  O 

through  Vienna.  It  was  a  sincere  pleasure  to  hear  so  directly 
from  you,  as  well  as  to  listen  to  his  fresh  and  interesting  con- 
versation of  all  that  he  had  been  hearing,  seeing,  and  reflect- 
ing upon  in  our  part  of  the  world.  Pray  give  him  our  kindest 
remembrances. 

I  envy  you  your  winter  in  Kome.     I  hear  that  the  weather 


254  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

is  magnificent.  It  never  seems  to  me  to  be  otherwise  in  Rome 
— and  one  never  wearies  of  being  there.  I  hope  that  you  have 
made  the  acquaintance  of  our  minister,  General  King, — a  man 
of  talent,  culture,  and  character,  who  did  good  service  in  the 
war  of  freedom,  and  who  is  a  most  worthy  representative  of  the 
Eepublic.  He  is  of  a  family  much  honoured  with  us  ;  and  I 
trust  that  you  will  also  make  the  acquaintance  of  his  father — 
who  must  be  in  Eome  now  for  the  winter — lately  President  of 
Columbia  College,  New  York,  one  of  the  chief  establishments 
of  high  culture  in  the  United  States.  They  are  all  great 
friends  of  ours — the  Misses  King,1  with  their  mother,  excellent 
and  accomplished  people,  much  beloved  by  us  all. 

You  will  not  like  old  Mr.  King  the  less,  because,  whilst  being 
a  most  thorough  American,  he  is  in  many  respects  more  like 
an  Englishman  than  any  one  not  native  to  your  soil  I  ever 
knew.  He  follows  the  hounds  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  and, 
like  so  many  of  your  public  men,  is  a  scholar  as  well  as  a 
politician. 

This  is  partly  owing  to  his  having  been  many  years  of  his 
boyhood  in  England,  where  his  father  for  a  long  time  was 
United  States  Minister.  He  was  brought  up  at  Harrow,  a 
classmate  of  Lord  Byron,  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  and  others. 

Pray  forgive  me  for  running  on  so  long  about  strangers, 
whom  perhaps  you  may  not  know ;  my  only  excuse  is  that  we 
are  very  fond  of  them  all,  and  I  think  you  will  find  General 
King's  house  agreeable  in  Eome. 

The  Storys  you  know,  of  course.  Would  you  kindly  convey 
to  them  our  warm  regards  when  you  see  them  ?  I  am  ashamed 
to  send  so  stupid  a  letter  so  far,  but  pray  forgive  me,  as  I  said 
at  the  beginning  and  now  repeat,  that  I  could  not  help  sending 
your  Grace  a  new  year's  greeting. 

My  wife  joins  me  in  kindest  remembrances  to  the  Duke  and 
yourself,  and  I  remain, 

Dear  Duchess  of  Argyll, 

Ever  most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 

1  One  of  them  is  Madame  Waddington,  now  wife  of  the  French  Ambassador  in 
London. 


1867.]  AMEKICA  AND  RADICALISM.  255 

To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Vienna, 
March  12tfi,  1867. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES,— Boston,  June  10th,  1866 ;  Feb.  16th, 
1867.  Such  are  the  dates  of  two  unanswered  letters  from  you. 
You  see  that  I  am  as  unblushing  in  my  iniquity  as  you  are 
hardened  in  your  benevolence.  That  you  should  really  have 
kept  your  promise  to  write  without  expecting  an  answer,  and 
have  actually  maintained  this  one-legged  correspondence 
through  all  those  years,  is  a  proof  that  human  virtue  is  not  yet 
extinct.  I  had  better  not  make  apologies  for  my  silence,  for 
none  are  possible.  I  have  read  your  two  last  letters  several 
times.  In  the  first  there  is  much  mention  of  Wendell,  then 
travelling  in  Europe  and  carefully  avoiding  Vienna.  I  was 
delighted  with  the  warm  reception  which  he  met  with  in  the 
most  distinguished  society  in  England.  I  have  heard  from 
many  sources  of  how  much  he  was  liked  and  appreciated  by 
everybody.  I  am  sure  that  he  must  have  enjoyed  himself, 
and  I  was  glad  that  so  true  a  representative  of  our  genuine 
"jeunesse  doree"  not  the  electroplated  article,  but  the  true 
thing  tried  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  a  four  years'  war,  could  be 
shown  in  places  where  the  ring  of  the  true  metal  is  known. 
Well,  he  will  be  all  the  better  for  his  long  and  brilliant 
soldiering  and  his  brief  philandering  in  foreign  meadows  of 
asphodel.  I  am  sure  that  he  will  become  a  better  American 
and  a  deeper  Kadical — every  year  of  his  life.  He  is  one  of 
the  fellows  who  have  got  to  prove  to  the  world  that  America 
means  Radicalism — that  America  came  out  of  chaos  in  order 
to  uproot,  not  to  conserve  the  dead  and  polished  productions 
of  former  ages.  Not  that  I  think  there  is  much  sense  in 
applying  European  party  politics  to  our  own  system — nor  am 
I  talking  politics  so-called,  whatever  that  word  may  mean. 
But  if  we  cannot  go  ahead  in  America  without  caring  how 
much  we  uproot  in  our  upward  progress — we  had  better  have 
left  the  country  to  the  sachems  and  their  squaws.  As  if  any- 
thing worth  preserving  could  be  uprooted  !  I  do  not  believe 
it.  We  have  been  conserving  slavery  these  fifty  years — but 


256  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CiiAr.  VII. 

when  it  became  the  question  whether  America  or  slavery  was 
to  be  uprooted,  it  was  not  slavery  that  proved  to  be  the  granite 
formation. 

I  forget  that  we  are  not  sitting  together  at  the  club 
jawing !  When,  oh  when,  shall  those  nodes  coenteque  deorum 
be  a  reality  to  me  again  ?  How  I  should  like  to  listen  to  you 
and  Lowell,  and  Longfellow,  and  Agassiz,  and  Whipple,  and 
Tom  Appleton,  and  all  the  rest  of  you  whose  names  I  will 
not  fill  up  this  sheet  with.  What  a  relief  to  hear  you  talk 
sublime  philosophy,  excellent  fooling  becoming  nobly  wise, 
not  mad,  as  the  Lafitte  circulated.  I  feel  almost  as  if  I  could 
even  talk  myself,  under  such  inspiration.  A  thousand  bores 
are  big  within  my  bosom  when  I  think  how  I  could  hold  forth 
on  a  private  stump  like  that — after  five  years'  experience  of 
the  silent  system  in  regions  where  it  is  a  recognised  truth  that 
language  was  given  to  conceal  the  thoughts.  I  am  glad  that 
you  called  my  attention  to  your  touching  and  interesting 
obituary  of  Forceythe  Wilson.  I  have  never  seen  the  "  Old 
Sergeant,"  I  have  never  seen  many  things  which  are  familiar 
to  you.  I  rarely  hear  such  things  talked  of. 

"I  am  so  unfamiliar  with  speech, 
I  start  at  the  sound  of  my  own." 

I  feel  that  I  should  enjoy  the  poetry  from  the  weird  Kem- 
brandt-like  sketch  you  give  of  the  poet.  Well,  one  of  these 
days  I  shall  read  up  to  my  own  epoch. 

And  that  reminds  me  of  a  question  I  am  now  putting 
myself.  Shall  I  read  the  '  Guardian  Angel '  in  numbers  or 
wait  for  the  whole  ?  My  judgment  says  wait.  I  know  that 
if  I  nibble  at  it,  a  twelfth  bit  at  a  time,  I  shall  not  enjoy 
devouring  it  all  at  once.  If  I  wait,  my  greediness  will  be 
rewarded.  But  I  am  sure  that  I  shall  not  wait,  I  have  already 
read  the  first  number,  and  I  see  that  I  shall  be  compelled  to 
go  on  with  it  as  fast  as  the  Atlantic  arrives,  which  it  does, 
I  am  happy  to  say,  with  commendable  regularity.  When 
I  have  read  it  all,  I  shall  either  talk  to  you  some  hours  about 
it  face  to  face,  or  write,  if  I  am  out  of  speaking  distance. 
For  the  present  all  I  can  say  is,  the  more  you  take  your 


1867.]  THE   'UNITED  NETHERLANDS.'  257 

readers  into  cloudland  and  away  from  the  prosaic  every  day, 
which  has  been  rather  overdone  by  great  masters  of  the 
positive  and  materialistic  schools  of  novel  writing,  the  better 
I  as  one  of  the  faithfullest  of  your  readers  and  admirers  shall 
be  pleased.  But  you  are  already  telling  me  to  mind  my  own 
business.  You  are  a  blessed  Grlendower, 

"  'Tis  yours  to  speak  and  mine  to  hear." 

It  is  a  fall  from  a  steep  precipice  after  speaking  of  your 
romance  to  allude  to  a  late' correspondence  in  the  newspapers.1 
But  as  you  say  so  many  kind  things  in  your  last  letter,  and  as 
so  many  friends  and  so  many  strangers  have  said  so  much 
that  is  gratifying  to  me  in  public  and  private  on  this  very 
painful  subject,  it  would  be  like  affectation  in  writing  to  so 
old  a  friend  as  you  not  to  touch  upon  it.  I  shall  confine 
myself,  however,  to  one  fact,  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  may  be 
new  to  you.  George  W.  McCracken  is  a  man  and  a  name 
utterly  unknown  to  me.  With  the  necessary  qualification 
which  every  man  who  values  truth  must  make  when  asserting 
such  a  negative,  viz.,  to  the  very  best  of  my  memory  and 
belief,  I  never  set  eyes  on  him  nor  heard  of  him  until  now,  in 
the  whole  course  of  my  life.  Not  a  member  of  my  family  or 
of  the  legation  has  the  faintest  recollection  of  any  such  person. 
I  am  quite  convinced  that  he  never  saw  me  nor  heard  the 
sound  of  my  voice.  That  his  letter  was  a  tissue  of  vile 
calumnies,  shameless  fabrications,  and  unblushing  and  con- 
temptible falsehoods  by  whomsoever  uttered,  I  have  stated 
in  a  reply  to  what  ought  never  to  have  been  an  official  letter. 
No  man  can  regret  more  than  I  do  that  such  a  correspondence 
is  enrolled  in  the  Capitol  among  American  State  Papers.  I 
shall  not  trust  myself  to  speak  of  the  matter.  It  has  been  a 
sufficiently  public  scandal.  My  letter — published  by  the 
Senate — has  not  yet  been  answered  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
At  least  I  have  not  yet  received  any  reply. 

My  two  concluding  volumes  of  the  ' United  Netherlands' 
are  passing  rapidly  through  the  press.  Indeed  Volume  III. 
is  entirely  printed,  and  a  third  of  Volume  IV.  is.  If  I  live 

1  See  Holraes's  Memoir  of  Motley,  p.  129. 
VOL.  II.  8 


258  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VII. 

ten  years  longer,1  I  shall  have  probably  written  the  natural 
sequel  to  the  two  first  works,  viz.,  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
After  that  I  shall  cease  to  scourge  the  public.  I  do  not  know 
whether  my  last  two  volumes  are  good  or  bad.  I  only  know 
that  they  are  true,  but  that  need  not  make  them  amusing. 
Alas !  one  never  knows  when  one  becomes  a  bore.  That  being 
the  case,  I  will  stop  now,  with  kindest  regards  and  remem- 
brances to  Mrs.  Holmes  and  yourself  and  all  your  house. 
Ever  most  sincerely  your  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 

1  He  died  May  29,  1877. 


(    259    ) 


I 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

LONDON. 

Visits  to  old  friends — Dinner  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hughes — The  Cosmopolitan — 
Ball  at  Stafford  House — Disraeli's  Keform  Bill — Professor  Goldwin  Smith — 
Friends  and  engagements — Argyll  Lodge — The  Reform  Bill — The  Sultan  in 
London — Breakfast  with  the  Due  d'Aumale — Holland  House — Dinner  with 
Mr.  John  Murray — Sir  W.  Stirling — Pembroke  Lodge — Lord  and  Lady 
Eussell— Hon.  H.  Elliot— Mr.  Bright— Speech  of  the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  the 
House  of  Lords— The  Philo-biblon  Society— Breakfast  with  Mr.  Turner- 
Visit  to  Lord  Stanhope  at  Chevening — Chiswick — Duchess  of  Sutherland — 
Dinner  with  Mr.  Gibbs — Lord  Houghton — Mr.  Forster — Lord  Lytton — 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grote — Dinner  with  Colonel  Hamley — Dean  Milman — Strath- 
fieldsaye — Lord  John  Hay — The  Duchess  of  Wellington — Bramshill — Sil- 
chester— General  Grant  appointed  Secretary  of  War — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sturgis 
— Chevening — English  feeling  towards  America — Knole  Park — The  Bishop 
of  Oxford — Holland  House — Visit  to  Lord  Sydney  at  Frognal — 'Black 
Sheep ' — '  Cometh  up  as  a  Flower ' — Lord  Wensleydale — Visit  to  Lord  Strat- 
ford de  Redcliffe— Professor  Owen— Madresfield  Court— Witley  Court— The 
English  aristocracy — Frampton  Court — The  Sheridans — Letter  from  Earl 
Russell  on  Vol.  III.  of «  United  Netherlands  '—Letter  to  Lady  W.  Russell  on 
Mr.  Odo  Russell's  engagement — Neuralgia — Story's  statue  of  Mr.  Peabody 
— Letter  from  Mr.  George  Ticknor  on  the  History. 

To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Maurigy's,  1,  Regent  Street, 

Sunday,  July  Uth,  1867. 

MY  DEAEEST  MARY, — I  may  as  well  write  a  line  or  two 
before  I  go  out  this  morning  (Sunday).  Friday  morning — day 
after  my  arrival — I  went  to  Lady  William  Eussell's.  I  found 
her  full  of  sympathy  and  affection  as  usual.  She  is  more 
infirm,  and  complains  more  of  her  age  than  she  used.  She 
stands  erect  in  a  kind  of  cage,  and  pushes  herself  about  the 
room  when  she  changes  place.  I  sat  with  her  half-an-hour. 
She  made  the  most  tender  inquiries  about  Lily,  most  affec- 
tionate ones  about  you  all,  and  is  quite  unchanged  in  feeling, 
and  not  at  all  weakened  in  mind.  I  promised— having,  of 
course,  no  engagement — to  go  back  and  dine.  I  made  no 

s  2 


260  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS,  [CHAP.  VIII. 

other  calls  that  day  except  at  Stirling  Maxwell's,  who  was  out ; 
the  De  Greys',  who  were  out,  the  Sturgis's,  who  are  all  on  the 
Continent— perhaps  in  Switzerland  ;  and  Mrs.  Norton's,  who  was 
in.  She  is  little  changed  in  face,  I  think,  and  almost  as 
handsome  as  when  we  last  saw  her.  She  was  most  affectionate, 
and  talked  much  and  tenderly  of  Lily  and  of  you  all.  She 
asked  me  if  I  had  seen  Sir  William,  and  I  did  not  make  it 
out  at  first  that  she  meant  Stirling. 

I  went  to  the  Athenaeum,  and  found  myself  at  once  in  the 
Silurian  stratum  of  my  old  acquaintances  by  stumbling  on  old 
Sir  Koderick.  He  looks  unchanged,  but  is  unsteady.  He 
regretted  not  to  have  met  me  sooner  that  he  might  have  asked 
me  for  that  day  to  a  dinner  he  was  giving  to  Sir  Samuel 
Baker,  the  African  traveller,  but  now  he  had  no  place,  and  the 
next  day  they  left  town.  I  told  him  that  I  had  promised 

Lady  William,  and  he  said  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  A were  of  his 

party.  When  I  came  into  the  morning -room  of  the  Athengeum 
I  found  Milnes,  who  lifted  up  both  his  arms,  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  and  Leighton.  At  Audley  Square  I  found  to  my  satis- 
faction that  Mrs.  A was  to  dine  with  us,  having  excused 

herself  to  the  Murchisons  on  the  ground  of  indisposition. 

Mrs.  A is  very  attractive  and  charming,  pretty,  gentle- 
mannered,  naive,  instructed,  accomplished.  Lady  William  is 
delighted  with  her  companionship.  They  live  with  her.  She 
speaks  English  utterly  without  foreign  accent,  exactly  like  an 
Englishwoman,  and  of  course  French  like  any  other  Parisian. 
She  has  translated  Mill's  t  Utilitarianism/  Her  mother, 
Madame  de  Peyronnet,  writes  in  both  the  Bevue  des  Deux  Mondes 
and  the  Edinburgh,  which  sufficiently  proves  her  cleverness. 

Next  day  I  called  on  the  Argylls,  sat  in  the  garden,  and 
lunched  afterwards.  Nothing  can  be  kinder  or  more  affec- 
tionate than  they  were  in  their  inquiries  for  you.  The  Duke 
made  an  excellent  speech  at  the  Garrison  breakfast,  and  so 
did  Lord  Eussell,  as  well  as  Bright  and  Mill.  I  will  get  the 
report  (in  the  London  papers  of  July  1st)  and  send  it  to  you. 
I  am  to  dine  with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  on  Thursday. 

I  called  and  saw  both  the  Wensley dales.  They  are  much 
less  changed  than  one  would  expect.  The  old  gentleman 


1867.]  LONDON  FKIENDS.  261 

announced  his  eighty-five  years  in  a  triumphant  manner, 
bullying  old  age  quite  fiercely.  Mrs.  Lowther  was  with  them, 
and  was  very  agreeable.  They  pressed  me  to  dine  that  day 
—likewise  a  Bakerian  dinner — but  I  had  promised  Lady 
William  again,  so  I  agreed  to  come  in  the  evening  to  the 
Wensleydales.  Mrs.  Hughes  was  the  other  convive  at  Lady 
William's.  Of  course  it  was  most  agreeable.  She  was  sweet 
and  warm-hearted  as  ever,  and  talked  all  the  time  of  Lily,  as 
did  Lady  William. 

The  first  person  I  saw  at  the  Wensleydales  was  Crealock. 
He  was  talking  to  a  fair-haired  dame,  who  rose  from  her  chair 

wailing   that  I  did   not  recognise  her.     It  was   Lady  , 

not  in  the  least  altered.  I  did  know  her,  only  she  had 
not  given  me  time  to  look.  She  was  particularly  jolly,  and 
most  friendly  in  her  inquiries  and  regrets  for  you. 

Mrs.  St.  John  Mildmay  with  her  white  locks  next  accosted 
me.  ...  I  was  introduced  to  Lady  Haddington,  and  to  a 
very  nice  person,  Lady  Alwyne  Compton.  Justice  Erie  re- 
minded me  of  my  holding  forth  on  American  constitutional 
law,  to  his  great  edification,  in  that  house  six  years  ago ;  and 
while  we  were  discoursing,  up  comes  old  Kennedy.  I  mean 
young  John,  formerly  of  Vienna.  It  brought  Vienna  back  to 
me  with  an  awful  pang.  I  believe  these  are  all  the  wonders 
that  I  have  to  relate.  This  letter  reminds  me  of  those  which 
Mary  used  to  write  at  the  age  of  seven.  By  the  way,  has  that 
absconding  party  really  got  her  trunk  or  not  ?  Or  has  not 
she  written  yet  ? 

Murray  thinks  the  business  can  be  settled  by  the  end  of 
this  month.  Stirling  is  going  soon  to  Carlsbad — which  I 
think  knocks  Scotland  on  the  head  for  me.  I  would  far 
rather  come  to  you  if  you  can  give  me  anything  like  com- 
fortable or  retired  quarters.  But  I  can  at  least  write  and 
read  and  have  as  many  books  as  I  want,  and  as  much  or  as 
little  society  as  I  like.  I  forgot  to  say  that  I  found  the 
Adams's  at  home  yesterday.  He  was  as  satisfactory  in  his 
utterances  on  my  case  as  I  could  expect.  He  felt  sure  that 
Seward  signed  without  reading  the  letter,  and  thereby  made 
an  awful  blunder  which  led  to  all  the  rest. 


262  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  LCnAr.  VIII. 

To  his  Wife. 

Maurigy's,  1,  Eegent  Street, 
July  17th,  1867. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAEY, — My  last  letter  was  written  last  Sunday, 
the  14th.  That  day  I  dined  quite  en  famille  with  the  Hughes's 
— the  only  other  guest  being  Kennedy  of  Baltimore,  whom  I 
was  very  glad  to  see,  and  who  is  as  friendly  and  kind-hearted 
as  he  always  was.  By  the  way,  it  was  on  account  of  my  letter 
of  introduction  given  to  him  at  Ischl  that  we  now  met  at 
Hughes's.  It  being  Sunday  the  dinner  was  cold — perfectly 
good  in  every  way — and  I  liked  the  plucky  way  in  which  all 
pretence  of  a  small  banquet  was  avoided.  Some  of  the  chil- 
dren, the  eldest  boy  and  two  girls,  dined  with  us,  and  I  am 
sure  that  Susie  would  have  been  in  raptures  if  she  could  have 
seen  little  May.  She  sat  at  my  side  and  took  me  under 
her  especial  protection.  The  servant  man  had  been  sent  out 
of  the  room,  and  the  two  little  girls  helped  us  help  each 
other  at  table.  Little  May  was  perpetually  getting  up  and 
changing  my  plate  and  bringing  me  an  immense  salad  bowl, 
bigger  than  herself,  and  insisting  on  my  gorging  myself.  I 
told  her  mother  that  she  was  conducting  herself  like  Helene 
in  '  Kobert  the  Devil/  and  was  putting  me  to  the  blush  :  she 
is  a  very  fascinating  little  imp. 

The  Hughes's  are,  what  they  always  were,  genuine,  kind- 
hearted,  and  delightful — full  of  warmest  inquiries  for  you  all. 

We  went  afterwards  to  the  Cosmopolitan,  where  I  fell  in  with 
one  or  two  old  acquaintances,  George  Cayley  among  the  rest, 
and  particularly  Stirling.  He  is,  I  think,  quite  unchanged, 
now  that  having  tarried  smooth-faced  all  his  life  until  his 
beard  was  grown  white,  he  has  adorned  himself  with  a  grisly 
moustache  and  accompaniments.  Our  meeting  was  very  cor- 
dial, and  a  great  pleasure  to  me  ;  he  is  going  off  to  Carlsbad 
at  the  end  of  this  week,  I  regret  to  say,  and  his  wife  leaves 
the  same  day  en  route  for  Scotland.  He  wishes  me  to  come  to 
Keir  early  in  September.  Monday  I  made  some  visits,  begin- 
ning with  Van  der  Weyer,  whom  I  found  at  home,  quite  as 
cordial  and  agreeable  as  ever.  .He  asked  me  to  dine  that  day, 


18G7J  BALL  AT   STAFFOED  HOUSE.  263 

saying  that  the  Wensleydales  and  others  of  my  friends  were 
coming.  I  had  no  previous  engagement,  being  just  arrived. 
Bishop  Eastburn  of  Boston  was  on  one  side  of  Madame  Van  der 
Weyer,  and  Dean  Stanley  on  her  right.  The  rest  of  the  com- 
pany were  the  Wensleydales,  Lowthers,  Miss  Emma  Weston, 
Arthur  Helps,  and  his  sister. 

After  dinner  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lady  Augusta 
Stanley,  whom  I  thought  very  agreeable,  and  the  company 
broke  up  at  ten,  some  of  us  going  to  a  great  ball  at  Stafford 
House  given  for  the  Viceroy  of  Egypt.  I  had  received  a 
card  through  the  kindness  of  Lady  Wensleydale,  and  I  was 
very  glad  to  see  a  fete  at  this  splendid  mansion,  never  having 
been  in  it  except  at  luncheon.  Strange  to  say  it  was  full 
dress,  that  is  to  say  in  uniform,  and  I,  of  course,  was  ununi- 
formed,  having  left  my  official  finery  at  Vienna.  However  I 
found  an  early  opportunity  to  make  my  bow  and  proffer 
apologies  to  the  Duke,  who  said  he  was  only  too  happy  to  see 
me  in  any  costume.  As  he  was  so  civil,  of  course  I  thought  no 
more  of  the  subject,  particularly  as  Lord  Granville,  who  greeted 
me  on  my  arrival,  had  already  told  me  that  there  were  a  good 
many  black  coats.  The  Duchess  I  never  saw  all  the  evening, 
as  she  was  occupied  with  royalties — all  the  Court  being  there. 
The  very  first  person  on  the  stairs  whom  I  met  was  Lady 
Jocelyn,  who  came  up  to  me  very  cordially,  and  looked  as 
beautiful  as  ever.  Then  I  came  upon  Adams  and  Moran, 
and  then  Stewart  in  his  war  paint,  with  kilt  and  claymore, 
rushed  forward  and  introduced  me  to  his  mother  and  several 
relations.  I  found  a  great  many  acquaintances — the  Duke 
and  Duchess  of  Cleveland  (Lady  Harry  Vane),  who  had  been 
marrying  Miss  Primrose  that  morning  to  Mr.  Wyndham,  son 
of  Lord  Leconfield.  Then  I  came  upon  the  Shaftesburys, 
Lord  Clarendon,  Lady  Taunton ;  then  Bille  of  Vienna,  now  of 
Paris,  collared  me,  and  with  him  came  up  the  Bulows.  He 
looks  rather  better  than  he  used ;  she  is  radiant,  already 
speaks  English  very  fluently  and  well,  and  adores  London — 
"  people  are  so  very  kind  to  her,"  etc.,  etc.  I  walked  about 
the  magnificent  house  for  half-an-hour  with  the  Duchess  of 
Argyll.  The  Duke  was  in  his  Highland  garb.  There  were 


264  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

two  bands  of  music,  a  great  supper,  and  everything  to  make 
you  comfortable. 

Tuesday,  I  ordered  a  brougham  to  drive  out  to  Holland 
House  to  make  a  call  on  Lady  Holland,  who  had  already  sent 
me  a  card  for  an  afternoon  reception  next  Saturday.  But  a 
deluge  prevented.  Lord  Stanhope  came  to  see  me  early  in  the 
forenoon,  and  subsequently  I  received  an  invitation  from  him 
to  come  to  Chevening  on  27th  and  28th.  The  rain  by  keeping 
me  in  the  house  did  me  a  great  service,  for  I  had  a  visit  from 
Lyulph  Stanley,  who  sat  with  me  an  hour.  He  is  only  in 
town  for  a  single  day,  being  on  the  Northern  Circuit  as  a 
barrister :  he  talked  very  agreeably  and  sensibly  on  American,. 
English,  and  Continental  politics,  and  I  was  much  pleased 
with  his  liberal  views. 

Dizzy  has  produced  a  Keform^Bill,  and  jockeyed  his  party  into 
supporting  it,  which  is  far  more  liberal  than  anything  Bright 
would  have  ventured  to  propose.  Lord  Cranborne  has  seceded 
from  the  Government  and  left  his  office.  Meantime  the  Tories, 
thanks  to  their  sudden  conversion  to  Kadicalism,  have  secured 
their  places  for  at  least  another  year.  The  metamorphosis  is 
almost  as  great  as  if  Jeff.  Davis,  Toombs,  and  the  rest  of  the 
slavery  party,  instead  of  going  in  for  rebellion,  had  met 
Lincoln's  candidacy  for  the  Presidency  in  1860  and  his  plat- 
form by  a  programme  abolishing  slavery. 

Soon  after  Lyulph's  departure  came  in  Gold  win  Smith, 
much  to  my  delight.  He  was  only  in  town  for  a  day,  but  I 
had  left  my  name  for  him  at  the  Athenaeum  and  he  came.  It 
was  a  great  pleasure  to  listen  to  his  weighty,  thoughtful,  and 
earnest  utterances  on  the  highest  and  gravest  subjects  that 
can  interest  full-grown  men,  and  to  find  myself  entirely  in 
harmony  with  him.  He  was  with  me  more  than  an  hour.  He 
believes  England  to  be  in  more  danger  than  she  ever  was. 
While  approving  and  rejoicing  in  the  Keform  Bill,  he  fears  as. 
its  result  a  combination  between  the  Tory  leaders  and  the 
lowest  orders,  something  like  the  unholy  alliance  which  so 
long  existed  between  the  Southern  slaveholders  and  the 
extreme  democratic  Irish  party  of  the  North. 

I  dined  in  the  evening  with  Stirling  Maxwell.     The  guests 


1S67.J  LONDON  FKIENDS.  265 

were  Lord  and  Lady  Belhaven,  old  Lady  Kuthven ;  then  there 
were  Mrs.  Norton,  Lady  Napier,  and  Anthony  Trollope.  I 
sat  between  Lady  Anna  and  Lady  Napier.  I  like  Stirling's 
wife  very  much ;  she  is  decidedly  handsome,  with  delicate 
regular  features,  fair  hair,  and  high-bred  and  gentle  manners. 
She  urged  me  much  to  come  to  Keir  in  September,  and  the 
Belhavens  and  Lady  Euthven  invited  me  to  their  places  in 
Scotland.  There  will  be  no  difficulty  in  my  spending  as 
much  of  September  as  I  wish  in  Caledonia  ;  but  I  don't  wish 
it,  if  you  can  only  house  me  somehow. 

Lady  Napier  only  arrived  from  India  two  or  three  days  ago ; 
is  going  for  two  or  three  days  to  visit  the  Queen  of  Holland 
at  the  Hague,  and  returns  to  Madras  in  about  three  months. 
I  don't  know  that  there  is  any  more  small  beer  to  chronicle 
just  now,  but  I  will  leave  this  letter  open  for  a  day  or  two. 
To-morrow  I  dine  with  the  Argylls  ;  next  day  with  the 
Tauntons  ;  Saturday  I  go  to  Holland  House,  and  afterwards  to- 
dine  with  Murray  at  Wimbledon.  Sunday  morning  I  go  to 
Lord  Eussell's  at  Pembroke  Lodge  to  dine  and  pass  the  night, 
having  received  a  very  warm  invitation  to  come  Saturday  and 
stay  till  Monday. 

This  is  my  programme  thus  far. 

Twisleton  has  just  been  paying  me  a  visit — quite  the  same 
man  as  ever.  By  the  way  Hay x  made  me  a  visit  a  day  or  two- 
ago.  I  must  say  that  he  expressed  himself  with  great  pro- 
priety and  modesty,  was  very  respectful,  and  said  everything 
that  could  be  expected  of  him.  He  was  offered  the  place,  he 
says — he  being  then  in  Illinois — of  Secretary  of  Legation  to- 
fill  Lippitt's  place  when  his  resignation,  both  official  and 
private,  had  been  received.  I  think  the  indications  are  that 
Eaymond  will  be  re-nominated  and  confirmed. 

I  forgot  to  say  that  I  liked  Trollope  very  much ;  he  was- 
:cessively  friendly,  and  wants  me  to  come  down  to  him  where 
ie  lives  in  the  country — I  forget  where :  perhaps  I  shall,  18th 
July.     I  also  forgot  to  mention  that  Madame  Mohl  was  at  the 
dinner  at  the  Van  der  Weyers'.     She  is  better  than  when  I 
last  saw  her,  but  looks  haggard  and  weird. 

Mr.  John  Hay,  who  was  appointed  Charge  d'affaires  at  Vienna  ad  interim. 


266  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CnAr.  VIII. 

Yesterday  I  called  on  Lady  Palmerston,  and  found  her  at 
home  and  quite  unchanged,  except  by  her  black  dress.  She 
seemed  almost  younger  than  six  years  ago  and  was  as  charming 
and  cordial  as  ever,  making  the  kindest  inquiries  about  you 
and  Lily. 

I  called  on  Lord  Stratford  de  Bedcliffe,  and  found  him  at 
home,  looking  much  as  he  used  to  do — a  little  stouter,  but 
very  smooth-faced  and  erect,  with  no  signs  of  senility  in  mind 
or  manner.  Certainly  the  "  bloated  aristocracy  "  of  England 
have  got  almost  as  near  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth  as 
Flick  and  Flock 1  ever  did.  I  had  no  invitation  to-day  for 
dinner.  It  was  the  Naval  Keview  at  Spithead,  to  which  I 
refused  two  or  three  tickets.  I  think  I  see  myself  going  to  a 
naval  review,  as  long  as  I  am  not  a  midshipman.  My  virtue 
was  rewarded,  for  it  blew  great  guns ;  there  was  no  review 
possible,  and  the  Sultan  and  the  people  who  mobbed  him  down 
to  Cowes  were  all  sold  and  returned  malcontent. 

I  went  to  the  Athenaeum,  met  Hay  ward  and  Kinglake 
(whom  I  like  much),  and  we  three  dined  together,  and  sat 
talking  after  dinner  until  it  struck  twelve.  Fancy  the  horror 
of  a  Viennese  at  such  a  proceeding — four  hours  and  two  pints 
of  table  wine  for  the  whole  party !  Politics,  literature,  society, 
religion,  education — how  funny  it  seemed  to  talk  of  these 
things  again !  The  sleepy  waiters  were  in  despair,  but  could 
not  help  themselves,  and  we  were  in  our  home  and  they  were 
our  slaves.  After  twelve  I  went  to  the  Cosmopolitan  because  I 
had  promised  Hughes  to  meet  him  there.  Hughes  had  gone, 
but  Stirling  was  left  and  one  or  two  others.  I  smoked  a  cigar 
and  came  off  to  bed  at  one.  I  think  I  had  better  stop,  this 
being  a  pamphlet  and  not  a  letter. 

God  bless  you  all !  Love  to  all.  Do  one  of  you  write  me 
a  line  every  day. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate  and  loving 

J.  L.  M. 

1  Characters  in  a  German  ballet. 


1867.]  DISRAELI'S  REFORM  BILL.  267 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Maurigy's  Hotel,  1,  Regent  Street, 
July  22nd,  1867. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — Your  two  letters,  17th  and  19th  July, 
were  duly  received,  and  gave  me  much  pleasure  and  some 
pain,  for  every  day  makes  me  realise  more  our  homeless  posi- 
tion. If  I  had  only  something  to  take  the  place  of  my  present 
encampment,  I  should  fold  my  portmanteau  like  the  Arab 
and  noiselessly  steal  away.  Meantime  I  will  duly  notify  you. 
Murray  will  not  discharge  me  under  a  fortnight,  however. 
On  the  18th  I  had  a  long,  pleasant  visit  from  Lord  Stratford 
de  Kedcliffe.  I  don't  know  that  either  of  us  made  any  obser- 
vations worthy  of  record.  There  was  plenty  of  wisdom  and 
wit,  no  doubt,  but  I  made  no  notes  at  the  time,  nor  probably 
did  he.  Afterwards  Twisleton  came  in — the  same  as  ever — 
very  amiable  and  cordial. 

I  went  out  to  Argyll  Lodge  to  dine.  The  company  num- 
bered about  twenty.  I  sat  between  the  Duchess  and  Lady 
Edith,  who  by  the  way  is  pretty,  agreeable,  and  interesting. 
On  the  right  of  the  Duchess  was  the  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
whom  I  had  never  met  before,  a  suave,  courteous  grandee. 
Then  there  were  the  Tauntons,  Belhavens,  the  youngest 
brother  of  the  Duchess,  Lord  Konald  Glower  (a  handsome 
youth,  who  has  much  artistic  talent),  Charles  Howard,  and 
some  others  whose  names  I  don't  recollect.  I  had  a  very 
pleasant  dinner  and  evening.  It  is  really  a  comfort  to  talk 
earnestly  for  an  hour  without  stopping,  to  feel  that  you  can 
be  a  bore  with  impunity. 

Of  course,  the  politics  of  America  just  now,  although  en- 
gaging much  attention,  pale  before  the  new-fangled  radicalism 
of  the  Derby-Dizzy  Cabinet.  There  are  to  be  malignant  and 
benignant  demonstrations  to-night  and  to-morrow  night  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  It  seems  to  be  admitted  that  the  Peers 
will  denounce  the  Eeform  Bill  fiercely,  and  then  mildly  vote 
for  it,  comforting  themselves  with  the  conviction  that  chaos  is 
really  come  again,  the  floodgates  open  for  ever,  and  all  the 


268  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [Ciur.  VIII, 

rest  of  it.  Meantime  they  dare  not  really  oppose  the  popular 
verdict  which  Dizzy  has  so  craftily  and  audaciously  exploited 
to  his  own  benefit. 

The  town  has  been  violently  engaged  in  mobbing  the 
Sultan,  the  Viceroy,  and  twenty-four  hundred  volunteers. 
There  have  been  balls  of  3000  to  4000  tickets  at  Islington  and 
India  House,  patronised  and  participated  by  the  bloated,  to 
which  all  the  world  and  his  wife,  the  devil  and  his  grand- 
mother, were  invited.  I  might  have  got  tickets  without  diffi- 
culty, but  I  had  two  reasons — first,  I  would  not  have  been 
paid  to  go  ;  second,  I  hadn't  my  uniform,  which,  by  the  way, 
I  suppose  still  moulders  in  Vienna.  Miss  Coutts  also  gave  a 
breakfast  at  Highgate  to  all  the  Belgian  volunteers,  from 
major-general  to  powder  monkey,  and  fed  them  all,  including 
the  nobility  and  gentry. 

On  the  19th  I  had  a  very  pleasant  family  breakfast  at  Stir- 
ling's at  ten.  I  then  went  by  rail  to  Twickenham,  having 
received  per  telegraph  an  invitation  to  breakfast  at  twelve 
with  the  Due  d'Aumale : 

"Too  much  of  breakfast  hast  thou,  Ophelia." 

The  consequence  of  which  is  that,  in  avoiding  to  overeat,  I  am 
apt  to  starve  in  the  midst  of  plenty.  The  Due  and  Duchesse 
were  very  cordial  and  agreeable,  and  are  beginning  to  recover 
from  the  severe  affliction  of  their  son's  death.  They  have  but 
one  other  child,  the  Due  de  Guise,  a  handsome  fair-haired  lad 
of  twelve.  I  sat  by  the  side  of  the  mistress  of  the  house. 
Next  to  the  Due  was  the  mother,  the  Princess  of  Salerno. 
Madame  Langel  was  next  to  me.  She  was  very  indignant  on 
the  Seward-Johnson-McCracken  conspiracy.  She  also  in- 
formed me  that  her  sister  was  to  be  immediately  married  to 
Mr.  Dicey,  the  writer  on  America  and  other  liberal  topics. 
They  are  all  immensely  pleased,  and  Miss  Emma  Weston  is 
now  with  the  bride-elect  in  Paris,  buying  the  trousseau. 

I  returned  to  town  at  two,  and  dined  with  the  Tauntons  at 
eight.  My  place  was  next  to  Lady  Taunton,  who  told  me  the 
names  of  her  guests,  most  of  whom  were  introduced  to  me 
afterwards ;  but  I  have  forgotten  all  but  the  Fortescues,  and 


1867.]  LONDON  ENTERTAINMENTS.  269 

a  youth  who  is  just  going  to  America,  as  most  of  the  swells 
are  now  doing,  by  name  Earl  of  Morley.  He  seems  ingenuous, 
well-bred,  and  decidedly  good-looking. 

Saturday,  2Qth. — I  breakfasted  with  Mr.  Fred.  Pollock — son 
of  the  ex-Chief  Justice  of  England — himself  a  lawyer  and 
an  eminent  reviewer.  He  wrote  the  review  of  the  '  United 
Netherlands/  six  years  ago,  in  the  Quarterly.  The  break- 
fast is  one  of  some  kind  of  club  (I  don't  know  how  named) ; 
but  there  happened  to  be  a  very  thin  attendance  present, 
there  being  only  Lacaita,  Sir  Erskine  May,  author  of  the 
'  Constitutional  History  of  England/  and  Sir  John  Lefevre, 
who  greeted  me  as  an  old  friend,  and  was  most  warm  in  his 
inquiries  about  you  and  your  mother. 

We  had  a  long  pleasant  talk,  and  we  walked  back  together 
through  the  Park.  How  anything  can  be  done  in  London 
but  breakfast,  lunch,  dine,  and  squash,  if  one  really  goes  in 
for  "  promiscuous  Ned,"  I  can't  comprehend.  The  breakfast, 
taken  miles  away  from  home,  and  including  two  hours  of  talk, 
snips  off  the  very  head  and  brains  of  the  forenoon.  Then 
comes  the  lunch  or  breakfast  party,  taking  "  a  huge  half- 
moon,  a  monstrous  cantle "  out  of  the  solid  day,  leaving 
barely  time  to  travel  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  and  dress  for 
dinner.  As  I  have  nothing  to  do  just  now,  and  am  faithfully 
doing  it,  I  only  speak  objectively.  Yet  I  do  remember  me, 
during  our  two  years  in  London,  I  wrote  and  published  nearly 
the  whole  of  Volumes  I.  and  II.  of  the  '  United  Netherlands.' 
All  I  can  say  is  that  I  couldn't  do  it  again. 

I  drove  at  four  to  Holland  House,  to  which  abode  I  had 
received  a  card  to  an  afternoon  party.  As  you  have  so  often 
been  to  parties  in  the  same  house,  I  shall  describe  nothing. 
Certainly  the  impression,  after  six  years,  was  the  same  as  the 
first  one.  It  is  the  most  delicious  house,  with  park,  garden, 
and  farmyard  almost  in  the  heart  of  a  great  metropolis.  The 
-exquisite  furnishing  and  collection  and  rarities,  struck  me  as 
more  wonderful  than  ever.  I  met  several  acquaintances,  the 
Stanhopes,  the  Clevelands,  Strezelecki  (grunting  and  "you 
know  "-ing  as  of  old),  Hay  ward,  Higgins  the  big,  and  Fleming 
the  flea,  the  Tauntons,  and  many  others,  although  the  atten- 


270  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VIII 

dance  was  less  than  usual,  owing  to  a  review  of  volunteers  a1 
Wimbledon. 

From  Holland  House  I  drove  across  country  to  Wimbledon, 
to  dine  with  John  Murray  of  Albemarle  Street  and  of  New- 
stead,  Wimbledon.  By  the  way,  Adams  had  invited  me  foi 
this  day  to  dinner,  but  I  was  long  engaged  to  Murray.  ] 
forgot  to  tell  you,  by  the  way,  that  at  the  Duke  of  Argyll's 
dinner  I  met  Sir  Henry  Storks,  the  man  of  power  and  pitt 
who  was  sent  to  smooth  out,  as  well  as  possible,  the  Jamaica 
crimes  under  Governor  Eyre.  Storks  is  just  on  his  way  with 
a  swell  to  carry  the  garter  to  our  Emperor  (of  Austria). 

At  Murray's  dinner  there  was  another  Governor,  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  who  has  ruled  some  part  of  India  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  looks  like  a  young  man,  his  wife  and  sister; 
another  Mr.  Pollock  and  his  wife;  Lord  Cranborne,  well 
known  to  you  and  to  fame  as  Lord  Kobert  Cecil ;  Dr.  Smith, 
editor  of  the  Quarterly  Eeview  and  author  of  the  'Classi- 
cal Dictionary/  the  '  Dictionary  of  the  Bible/  and  othei 
immensely  popular,  learned,  and  profitable  works.  This  was 
the  company.  Lord  Cranborne  was  jolly  and  good-natured, 
and  so  was  I,  the  subject  of  America  not  being  mentioned  by 
tacit  consent. 

Another  guest  was  Dr.  Thomson,  whom  you  or  I  knew  at 
Oxford,  and  who  has  since  blossomed  into  a  full-blown  Arch- 
bishop of  York.  You  will  say  that  my  letters  are  mere  cata- 
logues of  .  names,  and  remind  you  of  the  Morning  Post's 
fashionable  lists  or  the  Fremderiblatt ;  but  I  don't  know 
that  a  dinner  conversation  is  apt  to  transfer  its  aroma  next 
day  to  a  sheet  of  newspaper  any  more  than  the  dishes  them- 
selves. 

On  Sunday  morning  I  breakfasted  again  with  the  Stirlings, 
by  appointment,  as  I  had  promised  to  translate  for  him  a 
couple  of  letters  of  Don  John  of  Austria  out  of  a  Dutch 
chronicle,  which  I  had  cited  and  particularly  translated  in  the 
'  Dutch  Kepublic.'  After  we  had  finished — I  dictating  and  he 
writing  —  he  thanked  me  cordially,  adding  in  his  quizzical 
way  that  he  should  now  be  able  to  reproduce  the  letters  with 
a  delightful  air  of  originality,  and  censure  the  author  of  the 


1867.]  LONDON.  271 

*  Dutch  Kepublic '  for  having  given  so  incorrect  and  alto- 
gether defective  a  translation  in  that  excellent  work ;  and  so 
we  went  to  breakfast,  to  which  the  only  other  convive  was 
Milnes  (Lord  Houghton,  I  should  say,  but  never  do),  who  had 
invited  me  to  breakfast,  and  had  now  invited  himself  to  meet 
me  at  Stirling's,  eating  up  conscientiously  nearly  the  whole  of 
our  breakfast,  and  talking  all  the  time — in  short,  devouring 
and  conversing  for  all  five.  He  is  the  same  hearty,  jolly, 
paradoxical,  genial  companion  he  always  was. 

I  went  down  at  two  by  train  to  Pembroke  Lodge.  I  found 
Lady  Kussell  quite  unchanged  and  cordial,  and  full  of  kind 
inquiries  for  you  and  your  mother:  Lord  Kussell  has 
Americanised  his  institutions  to  the  extent  of  wearing  a  full 
beard  of  iron  grey,  which  becomes  him  very  much.  Otherwise 
he  is  much  the  same.  You  know  he  has  made  a  public  and 
rather  remarkable  recantation  of  his  errors  in  regard  to 
America  at  the  Garrison  breakfast.  Our  talk  was  therefore 
without  embarrassment.  He  glided  glibly  and  gingerly  over 
the  Seward-McCracken  misery,  and  discussed  general  topics 
in  a  satisfactory  way.  There  was  the  usual  sauntering  and 
receiving  in  the  gardens,  looking  out  on  that  unmatched 
Kichmond  Hill  prospect,  which  is  the  perfection  of  English 
scenery — itself  of  its  own  kind  a  perfection  too.  I  always 
think  when  I  look  upon  it  of  the  '  Allegro : ' — 

"  Straight  mine  eye  hath  caught  new  pleasures, 
As  the  landscape  round  it  measures ; 
Meadows  green  with  daisies  pied, 
Shallow  brooks  and  rivers  wide 
Towers  and  battlements  it  sees 
Bosomed  high  in  tufted  trees," — and  so  on. 

Nothing  can  surpass  this  bosky-bowery,  verdurous,  deeply- 
foliaged,  riotously  yet  placidly  luxurant  nature,  tamed  but 
beautified  by  art  and  hallowed  by  history.  There  were  Arthur 
Eussell  and  his  wife,  Lady  E.  Eomilly,  Henry  Elliot  and  his 
wife,  with  whom  I  had  much  pleasant  talk  and  refreshing 
reminiscences  of  our  dear  old  Husarzewski  palace.1  Sir 
Hamilton  Seymour  and  Lady  Seymour,  with  whom  too  I  had 

1  The  house  in  which  both  he  and  Sir  Henry  Elliot  had  lived  in  Vienna  at 
different  times. 


272  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

much  interchange  of  memories  of  Vienna.  I  liked  them  both 
very  much,  having  never  known  them  before.  Henry  Elliot  is 
going  soon  to  his  new  post  of  Ambassador  at  Constantinople. 
He  speaks  of  the  Marshes,1  as  every  one  does,  as  most  admi- 
rable and  superior  people  in  every  way,  whose  companionship 
they  have  both  very  much  enjoyed.  General  Seymour,  our 
old  acquaintance,  brother  of  Countess  Liitzow,  was  there,  and 
Lady  Waldegrave,  with  her  sposo,  from  Strawberry  Hill. 

I  found  by  the  way  in  the  autograph  book  on  the  table,  my 
last  letter  to  Lord  Eussell  in  reply  to  his,  and  glanced  through 
it  with  a  shiver,  fearing  that  I  might  have  been  indiscreet 
in  what  I  replied  to  his  expressed  indignation  in  regard  to 
my  quarrel  with  the  Government.  But  I  found  that  I  had 
been  very  enigmatical  and  diplomatic  as  to  the  "  deep  damna- 
tion of  my  taking  off,"  and  felt  relieved — the  letter  being 
almost  entirely  literary.  Monday,  I  made  a  few  calls,  getting 
in  only  at  Madame  Mohl's — except,  best  of  all,  at  Bright's.  I 
drove  up  to  his  lodgings  in  Albemarle  Street,  just  as  he  was 
entering  the  door  from  Birmingham.  I  had  a  most  interest- 
ing conversation  with  him  on  American  and  English  affairs. 
He  is  of  course  pleased  and  hopeful  with  regard  to  America, 
and  well  satisfied  with  the  Eeform  Bill,  despite  the  effrontery 
with  which  Dizzy  has  metamorphosed  himself  and  his  chief 
into  radicals  and  revolutionists.  Bright  has  certainly  a  mag- 
nificent face,  square-jawed,  resolute,  commanding,  with  a  short 
straight  nose,  a  broad  forehead,  and  a  grey  eye  which  kindles 
and  glows,  and  a  stem  but  well-cut  mouth.  I  had  forgotten 
how  fine  his  head  really  was.  I  doubt  if  I  shall  see  him  again 
as  he  leaves  town  very  soon.  N.B.  He  returned  my  call  next 
day,  but  I  was  out  of  course. 

On  coming  back,  I  found  Sudley's  card  and  Henry  Cow- 
per's. 

In  the  evening,  I  took  my  modest  dinner  at  the  Athenaeum, 
placing  myself  alongside  of  Lacaita,  with  whom  I  had  some 
pleasant  gossip.  Thursday,  I  had  promised  to  go  to  the  Ken- 
nedys, at  the  early  hour  of  nine,  to  breakfast,  in  company 
with  Hughes.  I  don't  know  how  I  happened,  as  your  mother 
1  Hon.  George  Marsh,  long  United  States  Minister  at  Turin. 


1867.]  SPEECH   OF   THE   DUKE   OF  ARGYLL.  273 

says,  not  to  mention  Hughes  before.  He  is  the  same  delight- 
ful companion  and  genuine  fellow  he  always  was — deeply 
interested  in  everything  that  is  earnest  and  noble,  and  work- 
ing himself  half  to  death.  The  Kennedys  and  Miss  Gray  are 
nice,  sympathetic,  and  genial  as  ever. 

Subsequently  I  drove  out  to  Argyll  Lodge,  by  appoint- 
ment, to  lunch,  and  thence  to  drive  with  the  Duchess  down  to 
her  mother  at  Chiswick.  It  turned  out,  however,  that  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  was  to  speak  that  night  in  the  Lords  on  the 
Keform  Bill;  so  the  expedition  to  Chiswick  was  postponed 
until  Friday.  I  passed  a  couple  of  hours  in  luncheon  and 
talk  very  pleasantly,  and  then  they  brought  me  into  town, 
and  the  Duke  got  me  placed  inside  the  throne  place  in  the 
Lords,  where  I  heard  Lord  Shaftesbury  and  then  the  Lord 
Chancellor  (Chelmsford),  and  then  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  who 
made  an  uncommonly  effective  and  telling  speech — much 
cheered  by  his  party — an  hour  long.  His  elocution  is  excel- 
lent, his  voice  melodious  and  sonorous,  and  his  action  much 
more  excited  than  is  usually  heard  in  those  prim  benches. 

I  must  break  off  now,  and  reserve  the  rest  of  my  wonderful 
and  thrilling  adventures  till  another  day. 

The  Eodmans  have  just  made  me  a  visit.  They  are  here  on 
their  way  to  Scotland,  where  he  has  hired  a  moor  for  the 
season.  They  were  pleasant,  looked  well  and  flourishing. 

Good-bye  for  the  present,  and  God  bless  you,  my  darling. 
My  best  love  to  your  dear  mamma  and  to  Mary  and  Susie. 
My  next  will  be  to  Mary,  in  answer  to  her  nice  pretty  letter 
from  Herschberg.  This  is  concluded  Wednesday,  24th  July. 

Your  affectionate  and  loving 

PAPA. 


To  his  Youngest  Daughter. 

Maurigy's, 
August  3rd,  1867. 

MY  DEAREST  SUSIE, —  ....  Friday  last  I  made  a  few 
visits — I  forget  where,  and  having  fortunately  no  dinner 
engagement — having  refused  two  for  that  day — I  dropped 

YOL.  II.  T 


274  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

in  at  the  Eodmans',  and  dined  with  them  at  the  "  Bath 
Hotel,"  spending  the  whole  evening  very  pleasantly  with 
them,  talking  over  old  times.  They  are  now  on  their  way 
to  Scotland.  Saturday  morning  I  went  to  the  last  break- 
fast of  the  season  of  the  Philo-biblon  Society,  given  by 
Mr.  Turner,  a  collector  of  rare  books.  In  the  hour  before 
breakfast,  I  had  occasion  to  admire  some  wondrous  specimens 
of  bouquins  from  all  countries  and  of  all  ages  since  the 
beginning  of  printing,  with  gorgeous  bindings  of  the  early 
periods,  engravings,  etchings,  illuminations.  My  mouth 
watered  at  the  sight,  and  I  wished  for  a  moment  to  be  also 
an  archbishop,  or  a  royal  duke  or  a  leading  Member  of  Par- 
liament, or  something  of  that  sort,  the  society  being  composed 
of  such,  and  all  the  members  equally  rich  in  similar  stupen- 
dous treasures. 

The  company  was  not  as  numerous  as  usual.  There  was 
Mr.  Gibbs,  who  has  a  splendid  house  called  St.  Dunstan's,  in 
Kegent's  Park,  filled  I  am  told  with  works  of  art,  especially 
typographical  wonders,  and  who  has  invited  me  to  dine  next 
Saturday. 

Then  there  was  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  ;  Houghton,  of  course, 
the  ubiquitous,  to  whom  I  was  indebted  for  my  invitation. 
Lady  Houghton  is  not  in  town,  also  in  bad  health,  so  that  I 
fancy  they  receive  no  company  at  Fryston.  Had  I  an  invita- 
tion to  that  delightfullest  of  all  country  houses,  I  could  hardly 
have  refused  it.  Likewise  John  Murray  the  publisher ;  Alex- 
ander Apponyi,  who  is  also  a  book  collector.  I  can't  recall  at 
this  moment  the  other  guests;  but  the  breakfast — which, 
contrary  to  London  custom,  was  sumptuous,  and  was  in  most 
respects  an  inverted  dinner — being  served  at  11  A.M.  instead 
of  9  P.M.,  and  beginning  with  coffee  and  tea  and  ending  with 
sherry,  champagne,  and  maraschino,  fish,  cutlets,  rotis — salads, 
game,  puddings,  and  ices,  going  on  meanwhile  in  regular 
order — astounded  me.  If  you  ask  me  what  I  did,  I  can  only 
say  that  I  opened  my  ears  to  the  animated  and  intellectual 
conversation,  and  my  mouth — not  to  eat,  but  to  gape  and  gasp 
with  wonder  at  the  prodigious  consumption  of  victuals  at  that 
hour  in  the  day.  When  I  reflected  that  all  those  people 


1867.]  CHEVENING.  275 

would  lunch  at  two  and  dine  at  eight,  I  bowed  my  head  in 
humiliation  and  the  fork  dropped  from  my  nerveless  grasp. 

I  went  down  in  the  two  o'clock  train  to  Sevenoaks,  and 
thence,  per  fly,  to  Chevening.  The  Stanhopes  were  out  driv- 
ing for  a  little,  but  Lord  Mahon  and  Lady  Mary  were  walking 
in  the  grounds  and  welcomed  me  most  warmly.  Tell  Lily 
that  Lady  Mary  has  grown  some  inches  since  she  knew  her, 
and  has  become  an  extremely  pretty  and  very  charming  girl 
—witty,  very  attractive. 

Lady  Stanhope,  who  came  in  soon,  and  with  whom  I  walked 
about  for  an  hour  or  two,  is  as  agreeable  as  ever,  and  I  always 
thought  her  one  of  the  most  fascinating  persons  I  ever  knew. 
She  was  very  kind  and  tender  in  her  inquiries  about  Lily,  and 
had  very  affectionate  remembrances  of  your  mamma.  Lord 
Stanhope  was  quite  unchanged  in  manner — somewhat  aged  in 
appearance.  A  few  other  guests  arrived  towards  dinner — 
namely,  Lord  Camperdown,  who  has  just  succeeded  to  his  earl- 
dom, graduating  as  a  "  double  first "  at  Oxford,  and  has  been 
making  a  successful  maiden  speech.  He  is  going  to  make  a  tour 
in  America,  in  company  with  Lord  Morley  and  Henry  Cowper. 
He  was  very  grateful  for  a  couple  of  notes  of  introduction 
which  I  gave  him  for  Sumner  and  Longfellow.  There  came 
also  our  youthful  Vienna  friend,  Lord  Sudley,  now  the  pro- 
prietor of  a  wife  and  two  children,  the  youngest  ten  days 
old.  Otherwise  he  looks  and  seems  quite  the  same.  Then 
came  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Wellington.  This  makes  up 
the  party.  He  is  very  noisy,  amusing,  good-natured,  a  sort  of 

gray-haired  W ,  without  that  youth's  occasional  solemnity, 

and  less  troubled  with  bashfulness. 

The  party  at  dinner  was  pleasant  and  unrestrained.  We 
played  billiards  on  a  miniature  table  in  the  small  room  out  of 
the  drawing-room  until  half-past  eleven,  and  then  we  young 
fellows  sat  up  till  two,  smoking  cigars  and  listening  to  the 
Duke's  comical  stories.  The  visit,  all  through  Saturday  and 
Sunday  until  Monday  at  twelve,  was  extremely  agreeable ;  the 
weather,  strange  to  say,  was  splendid.  The  gardens  were  a 
blaze  of  glory.  I  had  never  seen  them  in  their  full  magnifi- 
cence before,  and  such  roses  and  such  profusion  of  them  it  was 

T  2 


276  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

never  my  lot  to  see.  I  enjoyed  the  velvety  turf,  the  verdurous 
groves,  the  weird-looking  yews,  the  luxurious  house,  and  I 
can't  wonder  that  those  born  to  such  things  wish,  as  Lord 
John  said,  to  rest  and  be  thankful.  Unfortunately  the  luxury, 
both  intellectual  and  physical,  of  a  few  thousands,  is  in  awful 
contrast  to  the  dismal  condition  of  many  millions. 

Nothing  can  be  kinder,  more  genial,  more  gentle  than  the 
whole  family.  They  insist  that  I  shall  come  again  this  month. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  is  bent  on  having  a  party  at  Strath- 
fieldsaye,  to  which  he  has  invited  the  Stanhopes  and  myself, 
and  has  asked  me  if  I  would  object  to  meet  Disraeli.  I  said 
"  Quite  the  reverse,"  and  have  faithfully  promised  to  go,  but 
I  am  sure  to  fade  out — I  think. 

The  Sturgis's  are  all  back,  and  I  agree  with  your  mother 
that  each  is  handsomer  than  the  other.  The  most  unchanged 
one  in  appearance  is  the  "  Familienvater."  She  is  as  cordial 
and  affectionate  as  ever.  I  have  dined  there  twice,  and  shall 
dine  there  again  to-morrow.  But  I  will  close  this  letter  and 
reserve  the  rest  of  my  wonderful  adventures  for  another  letter. 
I  have  almost  nothing  to  say,  however.  Murray,  with  his 
index,  will  detain  me  nearly  ten  days  longer,  I  think,  and  I 
am  not  sure  what  I  shall  decide  to  do  afterwards.  Town  is  so 
empty  that  I  am  actually  thinking  of  doing  a  little  work  in 
the  State  Paper  Office.  I  have  now  few  acquaintances  in 
London,  and  nothing  is  going  on.  I  have  plenty  of  invita- 
tions to  the  country,  which  I  don't  wish  to  accept.  Embraces 
to  your  mamma,  Lily  and  Mary,  and  to  yourself. 

Ever  my  darling  Susie, 

Your  affectionate 
LAMB. 


To  his  Wife. 

Maurigy's, 
August  12th,  1867. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — I  suppose  that  Murray  will  have  done 
with  me  in  the  course  of  this  week.  I  fear  I  can't  give  you 
much  entertainment  or  instruction  this  morning.  My  recol- 


18C7.]  LONDON  DINNER   PARTIES.  277 

lection  of  the  few  events  which  have  occurred  has  become 
confused.  I  think  I  omitted  to  tell  you  that  one  morning — a 
good  while  ago — the  Argylls  took  me  down  to  Chiswick  to  see 
her  mother,  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland.  I  found  her  appa- 
rently not  much  changed,  although  in  reality  she  is  a  great 
sufferer.  She  was  as  cordial  and  genial  as  possible — really 
affectionate— and  it  delighted  me  to  see  her  once  more, 
although  in  so  sad  a  physical  condition.  The  place,  too — the 
beautiful  Italian  villa  of  Chiswick — had  a  melancholy  interest 
for  me,  for  I  used  to  be  often  the  guest  there  in  former  times, 
of  her  brother,  the  most  genial  and  warm-hearted  of  men,  Lord 
Carlisle ;  and  met  Macaulay,  among  others,  there  several  times. 

The  Duchess  was  very  affectionate  in  her  inquiries  about 
Lily  and  you,  and  sent  kindest  remembrances.  I  parted  with 
her  with  much  regret. 

I  had  a  very  agreeable  dinner  at  Mr.  Gibbs's  some  time  since. 
He  is,  I  believe,  a  rich  merchant,  of  very  cultivated  tastes,  a 
member  of  the  Philo-biblon  Society,  and  lives  in  a  splendid  villa 
in  the  Eegent's  Park,  with  a  garden  occupying  four  acres,  and 
a  ball-room  seventy  feet  long,  and  other  rooms  en  suite  in  pro- 
portion. This,  in  London,  may  be  supposed  to  indicate  comfort- 
able circumstances.  The  house  belonged  to  one  of  the  great 
swells  of  the  period — the  Marquess  of  Hertford — now  defunct. 

The  dinner,  which  I  think  was  made  for  me,  was  very  good 
and  very  agreeable.  I  can't  tell  you  the  names  of  the  com- 
pany, except  Houghton,  between  whom  and  myself  the  hostess 
sat.  He  was  as  jolly  and  entertaining  as  ever. 

The  next  day  I  lunched  with  Houghton,  and  for  the  first 
time  this  visit  saw  Lady  Houghton,  who  is  very  much  an 
invalid,  and  looks  worn  and  thin;  but  has  the  same  kind, 
genial  manner  she  always  had.  She  had  come  in,  she  said,  on 
purpose  to  see  me,  and  I  was  much  gratified  with  the  atten- 
tion. No  one  else  was  there  but  his  sister,  Lady  Galway,  who 
is  very  intelligent,  and  who  had  a  good  deal  to  say  of  her 
Plombieres  acquaintances,  my  sister  A and  A L . 

I  have  dined  with  Forster,  where  I  again  missed  Bright, 
who  had  been  invited,  but  was  engaged.  I  liked  Forster  and 
his  wife  more  than  ever,  and  I  shall  certainly  try  to  go  to 


278  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Wharfside  for  a  day  or  two  if  it  be  possible.  They  have 
invited  rne  thither  very  cordially.  The  other  guests  on  this 
occasion  were  a  clergyman,  named,  I  think,  Temple,  and 
Mr.  Townsend,  editor  of  the  Spectator,  whose  conversation, 
both  on  American  and  English  affairs,  was  very  interesting, 
outspoken,  and  thoughtful. 

I  have  dined  thrice  with  the  Sturgis's,  and  always  enjoy 
myself  exceedingly  with  them,  for  it  is  a  delight  to  feel  so 
perfectly  at  home  with  old  friends  for  whom  I  have  so  sincere 
an  affection.  I  shall  try  to  go  to  their  farm — Givon's  Grove — 
for  a  day  or  two  this  week.  They  have  already  left  town, 
much  to  my  dissatisfaction.  Lytton  *  I  have  seen  once,  lying 
in  his  blankets  and  occupied  with  proof-sheets.  Subsequently 
he  has  recovered,  and  invited  me  to  dinner.  I  was  engaged. 
I  like  him  as  much  as  ever.  He  is  bringing  out  three  volumes 
of  poetry,  some  new,  some  old ;  among  other  things  a  short 
poem  on  America — called  'Atlantis' — very  bold,  enthusiastic, 
original,  for  which  he  will  catch  it  from  the  critics,  for  our 
appalling  success  can  never  be  sincerely  forgiven. 

I  went  one  day  to  lunch  with  the  Grotes.  Stuart  Mill  and 
his  step-daughter  were  there.  Also  Dr.  Smith,  editor  of  the 
Quarterly.  Poor  Mrs.  Grote,  who  had  but  just  arrived  from 
Wiesbaden,  where  she  had  been  seeking  for  health  in  the 
waters,  and  finding,  I  fear,  none,  had  been  in  much  pain  all  the 
forenoon,  and,  funnily  enough,  had  forgotten  to  tell  the  servants 
that  she  had  company  to  luncheon.  Luckily  I  had  already 
told  her  that  I  almost  never  lunched.  Mill  and  Grote  could 
feast  themselves  and  others  on  pure  reason,  so  that  the  scraps 
of  cold  meat,  with  an  incidental  potato,  sufficed  for  the  some- 
what Barmecidal  revel.  Mrs.  Grote's  reminiscences  and  the 
talk  at  table,  as  you  may  suppose,  with  such  company,  were 
most  delightful  and  instructive.  But,  alas !  I  have  taken  no 
notes,  so  that  I  can  give  you  no  politico-economical,  philoso- 
phical or  Platonic  apothegms  fresh  from  the  lips  of  Mill  and 
Grote. 

A  few  days  ago  I  dined  at  the  Army  and  Navy  Club — a 
little  dinner  expressly  made  for  me  by  Hamley.  But  the  best 

1  The  present  Earl  of  Lytton. 


1867.]  DEAN   MILMAN.  279 

of  the  joke  was  that  the  company  he  invited  to  meet  me  were 
Delane  and  Morris  (of  the  Times).  These,  with  Frederick 
Elliot  and  Hamley's  brother — colonel  of  engineers — a  quiet 
intelligent,  gentlemanlike,  married  man,  made  up  the  party. 
The  dinner  and  wines  were  remarkably  good,  and  I  have 
rarely  enjoyed  myself  more  thoroughly.  As  I  told  him  when  I 
accepted  his  invitation,  three  years  ago  it  would  have  been 
an  impossibility,  but  that  now  bygones  were  bygones. 

Just  before,  I  had  gone  down  to  the  Milmans  at  Ascot, 
where  they  have  hired  a  pleasant  villa,  very  near  Windsor 
Forest.  They  had  invited  me  and  you  to  pass  several  days, 
but  I  popped  down,  with  little  warning,  to  dine  and  pass  the 
night  only.  I  was  agreeably  disappointed  in  his  appearance. 
He  had  been  described  to  me  as  very  much  more  bent,  stoop- 
ing to  the  ground  ;  so  he  is,  but  the  bend  is  so  circular  at  his 
back  that  it  has  the  appearance  of  a  hump ;  while  the  face, 
with  the  coal-black  eyes  and  raven  eyebrows,  surmounted  by 
snow-white  hair,  is  really  in  a  true  plumb-line  from  his  feet, 
and  he  appears  to  stand  erect  like  a  benignant  Anthropo- 
phagus,  with  his  head  beneath  his  shoulders,  at  a  height  of 
three  feet  from  the  ground.  He  is  a  good  deal  more  deaf,  so 
that  one  must  change  the  whole  pitch  of  one's  voice.  But  he 
is  full  of  life,  interest  in  all  things  political,  scientific,  literary; 
full  of  work  and  of  plans.  She  is  as  sweet,  stately,  genial, 
and  gentle  as  she  always  was — as  silvery  voiced  ;  and  also  her 
sable  hair  has  turned  out  its  silver  lining  very  completely 
upon  the  night.  In  the  main  I  found  them  singularly  un- 
changed, and  as  you  know  them  so  well,  that  is  their  best 
eulogy.  It  is  most  delightful  to  see  that  Time,  which  has 
been  so  effective  upon  his  backbone  and  his  tympanum, 
has  had  no  effect  on  his  splendid  intellect  and  his  genial 
disposition. 

There  was  no  one  there  but  their  son  Arthur.  I  passed  a 
delightful  evening  and  following  forenoon,  and  came  up  to 
town  in  time  for  Hamley's  dinner. 

Last  Friday,  at  two,  I  proceeded  to  Strathfieldsaye — forty 
miles  from  London — in  Hampshire.  I  have  but  little  to 
chronicle  of  this  visit.  It  was  to  have  been  a  party — the 


280  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

I 

Stanhopes,  Dizzy,  and  Lord  Lytton  ;  but  the  Duke  had  made  a 
muddle.  The  Stanhopes  had  company  themselves  at  Cheven- 
ing,  and  of  course  Dizzy  could  not  well  leave  town  before  the 
Keform  Bill  was  through.  To  say  the  truth,  I  was  not  much 
disappointed.  I  was  able  to  find  myself  more  at  home,  and  on 
terms  of  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  host  and  hostess 
than  if  there  had  been  the  proposed  party.  We  were  not 
entirely  alone,  for  Fleming,  who  really  is  a  very  intelligent 
and  agreeable  companion,  in  spite  of  his  make-up,  was  there. 
Also  the  Duchess's  brother,  Lord  John  Hay,  whom  I  like 
extremely.  He  is  very  chaffy  ;  is  a  post-captain  in  the 
navy ;  has  been  all  over  the  world ;  is  a  Member  of  Parlia- 
ment, valuing  himself  on  being  an  extreme  Liberal,  which  he 
really  is.  In  short,  he  is  an  uncommonly  good  companion, 
with  a  good  deal  of  mind  and  character,  and  a  humour  which 
reminds  me  a  little  of  Stirling.  The  Duchess  is  certainly 
beautiful.  Praxiteles  never  cast  more  regular  features.  She 
has  beautiful  brown  hair,  olive  eyes,  charming  mouth  and 
teeth,  and  a  low  and  gentle  voice.  Her  manner  is  perfectly 
simple,  unaffected,  and  kindly.  .  .  .  She  certainly  looks,  with 
her  lap-dog  under  her  arm,  and  her  tall,  stately  figure,  as 
much  like  a  portrait  of  a  great  dame  by  Vandyke  or  Titian 
as  you  will  ever  see  on  canvas  in  England  or  Genoa  or  Venice. 
She  drove  me  in  her  pony  phaeton  all  about  the  park  as  soon 
as  I  arrived.  After  an  hour  or  two  of  search  we  discovered 
the  Duke  and  the  Flea  fishing  unsuccessfully  for  chub  in  the 
river  Loddon,  a  mild  and  sleepy  tributary  to  the  Thames, 
which  flows  through  Strathfieldsaye. 

I  was  welcomed  with  the  most  cordial  and  unaffected  hospi- 
tality, and  made  to  feel  myself  perfectly  at  home.  The  park 
is  one  of  the  finest  of  the  many  verdurous,  velvety,  out-forested 
stately  homes  of  England — paradises  very  perverting  to  the 
moral  and  the  politico-economical  sense,  and  which  must,  I 
think,  pass  away,  one  of  these  centuries,  in  the  general 
progress  of  humanity. 

Without  further  boring,  I  may  as  well  say  that  the  house  is 
not  a  palatial  residence.  It  is  a  rambling  old  manor-house, 
with  a  good  deal  of  room  in  it,  very  badly  situated  in  the 


18G7.]  BRAMSHILL — SILCHESTER.  281 

lowest,  least  attractive  part  of  the  domain,  miscellaneously 
furnished,  papered  in  almost  all  the  rooms  with  prints  from 
Boydell's  Shakespeare,  and  other  high  works  of  art. 

Friday,  Saturday,  and  Sunday  were  very  agreeably  spent. 
The  weather  was  sumptuous,  and  we  drove  about,  all  of  us, 
among  the  green  lanes  of  pleasant  Hampshire  every  day,  and 
I  feasted  my  eyes  once  more  on  that  which  is  the  perfection 
of  common-place  scenery — the  well-trimmed,  well-swept,  well- 
combed  and  brushed  and  cleaned  hills  and  dales,  and  farms 
and  groves  of  merry  England. 

We  visited  a  very  remarkable  old  house  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, Bramshill,  built  in  the  beginning  of  James  the  First's 
time,  belonging  to  a  certain  Sir  William  Cope,  not  rich 
enough  to  keep  it  up,  so  that  the  house  is  shabby,  dilapidated, 
and  therefore  more  picturesque.  It  has  essentially  the  same 
characteristics  as  Holland  House  and  Knole,  which  you 
remember  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Chevening. 

The  most  interesting  thing  I  saw  in  the  neighbourhood  was 
Silchester,  to  which  place  the  Duke  drove  Lord  John  and 
me  on  Saturday  forenoon.  This  is  a  hundred-acre  farm  on 
his  estate,  quite  surrounded  by  the  remainder  of  walls  of  an 
ancient  Koman  town,  with  the  remains  of  houses,  shops  and 
forum  just  six  inches  below  the  surface — a  Hampshire  Pompeii. 
The  excavations,  not  on  a  very  extensive  scale,  but  most 
interesting,  are  made  under  the  superintendence  of  the  very 
intelligent  and  learned  rector  of  Strathfield,  Mr.  Joyce;  and 
the  situation  of  the  ancient  town,  of  which  absolutely  nothing 
is  known  in  history,  is  well  mapped  out  and  perfectly  under- 
stood. Bushels  of  coin,  with  the  heads  of  every  emperor 
during  the  four  centuries  of  the  Koman  occupation  of  Britain, 
have  been  collected,  besides  numerous  other  objects  of  interest ; 
and,  in  short,  I  will  bore  Susie  no  longer  on  the  subject. 
Altogether  I  was  much  pleased  with  my  visit.  The  Duke  is 
certainly  very  agreeable  company,  amusing  and  rattling,  good- 
humoured,  with  a  good  deal  of  mother  wit  and  capacity,  and  a 
very  hospitable  and  attentive  host. 

Coming  up  by  rail  this  morning,  we  met  with  Goldwin 
Smith  and  the  Bishop  of  Oxford — not  jointly,  as  you  may 


282  MOTLEY'S   LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

imagine — and  subsequently  Lord  Stratford  and  William 
Harcourt.  I  found  your  letter,  which  I  have  already  acknow- 
ledged; also  a  note  from  Lady  Wensleydale  at  Ampthill, 
inviting  me  there  for  Saturday,  which  I  must  decline,  being 
engaged  at  Chevening. 

Your  affectionate  and  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Maurigy's, 
August  Uth,  1867. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  think  it  may  interest  you  to  read 
the  enclosed  very  agreeable  letter,  which  I  have  just  received 
from  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in  answer  to  one  written 
by  me  to  him  a  good  while  ago,  acknowledging  receipt  of  his 
annual  Message  to  the  Legislature. 

It  has  no  practical  importance,  of  course,  but  it  is  pleasant 
to  feel  that  the  most  influential  and  honourable  people  at 
home  are  so  well  disposed  towards  me. 

My  last  letter  to  you  was  August  12th.  Since  then  we 
have  had  two  very  hot  days — the  first  of  the  season.  I  am  going 
down  this  evening  with  Sturgis  to  Givon's  Grove,  the  name 
of  their  country  house,  and  shall  stay  till  Friday,  when  I 
come  up  to  town,  to  go  the  same  afternoon  to  Chevening  for 
three  days.  I  have  just  had  a  note  from  Lady  Wensleydale, 
asking  me  to  Ampthill  for  the  same  time,  which,  of  course,  I 
had  to  decline.  I  hope  to  pass  a  day  or  two  there  before  I 
leave  these  shores. 

I  have  also  promised  to  go  to  the  Lefevres  for  a  day  or  two 
at  Ascot,  where  they  have  a  pretty  villa,  near  the  one  which 
the  Milmans  are  now  occupying.  I  have  just  seen  Mr.  Palfrey, 
who,  with  his  daughter,  arrived  in  the  last  steamer,  and  I 
have  had  a  long,  very  agreeable  conversation  with  him.  He 
thinks  that  the  Eepublican  party  is  so  strong— and  daily 
growing  stronger — that  they  can  elect  any  candidate  for  the 
Presidency  they  choose — either  Grant,  if  he  come  sufficiently 
out  of  his  reserve  to  be  acceptable  as  their  candidate,  or 


1867.]  GEXERAL  GRANT,   SECRETARY  OF   WAR.  283 

another  man  over  his  head,  even  should  he  run.  I  am  only 
giving  you  his  impressions,  he  being  fresh  from  home.  The 
telegram  which  you  will  read  in  the  paper  of  to-day,  that 
Johnson  has  suspended  Stanton,  and  appointed  Grant  Secre- 
tary of  War,  is,  I  suppose,  likely  to  make  a  tremendous  row 
when  Congress  meets  in  November.  Grant,  of  course,  cannot 
have  been  appointed  Secretary  of  War;  but  he  may  have 
consented  to  act  as  such — faute  de  mieux — until  the  Senate 
reinstates  Stanton.  I  hope  that  it  won't  damage  Grant's 
popularity,  but  I  suspect  the  time  is  fast  approaching  when 
Ulysses  must  cease  to  do  the  "  dumb,  inarticulate  man  of 
genius  "  business.  Thus  far  it  has  answered ;  I  should  be 
sorry  that  he  should  lose  his  chance,  which  but  yesterday 
seemed  a  certitude.  Yesterday  I  had  a  very  pleasant  family 
dinner  at  the  Pollocks',  whom  I  like  extremely ;  the  day 
before  I  dined  at  the  Athenaeum  with  Hayward,  Kinglake, 
Strzelecki,  and  Admiral  Carnegie — very  pleasant  indeed. 

God  bless  you,  dearest;  embraces  to  all.     Write  soon  to 
your  loving 

LAMB. 

Of  course  you  will  preserve  Governor  Bullock's  letter. 


To  his  Wife. 

Maurigy's, 
August  2QO,  1867. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  think  my  last  letter  was  written 
just  as  I  was  going  down  for  a  couple  of  days  to  the  Sturgis's. 
They  have  a  charming  villa,  in  a  beautifully  wooded,  rolling, 
downy  country,  and  their  present  plan  of  life  seems  to  me  far 
more  judicious  than  the  Mount  Felix  system.  They  can't 
have  more  than  two  or  three  guests  at  a  time ;  but  those  who 
are  there  enjoy  themselves  highly.  He  has  put  a  broad 
verandah  (what  we  so  comically  call  a  piazza)  all  around  the 
house ;  and  as  the  Wednesday  evening  of  my  arrival  was 
suffocatingly  and  deliciously  hot,  we  all  sat  out  of  doors  the 
whole  evening  after  dinner — smoking  and  babbling.  Ex- 


284  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

hausted  by  the  effort  of  producing  such  a  quantity  of  heat  in 
twenty-four  hours,  the  English  climate  broke  down  the  next 
morning,  and  there  was  a  soaking  rain  the  whole  of  the  next 
day,  making  out  of  doors  an  impossibility.  We  passed  a  very 

agreeable  day,  however.     J and  F were  there,  quite 

unchanged,  I  thought,  in  every  particular.  They  told  me 
much  of  Pau,  and  I  fancy  are  likely  to  go  there  if  we  go.  I 
won't  go  into  the  discussion  of  the  point,  however,  to-day.  I 
passed  a  part  of  Thursday  in  reading  the  first  volume  of  Hep- 
worth  Dixon's  '  New  America,'  because  so  much  is  said  about 
it  just  now,  that  I  read  it  in  self-defence.  It  is  readable 
enough — amusing ;  only  the  Mormons  are  to  me  the  most 
insufferable  of  bores  and  beasts,  and  I  shall  be  glad  when 
the  advancing  tide  of  civilisation  sweeps  their  filthy  little 
commonwealth  out  of  existence. 

After  a  couple  of  very  pleasant  days  at  "  Grove  Farm,"  or 
Givon's  Grove  (the  old  name,  and  the  one  I  humbly  prefer), 
I  came  up  on  Friday  morning  to  town.  At  4.30, 1  again  took 
rail  for  hospitable  Chevening,  where  I  spent  three  most  agree- 
able days.  The  party  consisted  of  Lord  and  Lady  Sydney. 
He  was  the  Whig  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  I  think  you  must 
remember  him  by  sight — the  Vincent  Auersperg  of  London. 
(By  the  way,  you  saw,  doubtless,  that  poor  Auersperg  died 
about  a  month  ago.)  Lady  Sydney  is  very  nice — intelligent, 
accomplished,  sympathetic.  Then  we  had  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mey- 
nell  Ingram — whom  I  liked  very  much.  He  is  a  Yorkshire 
gentleman  of  high  degree,  with  a  vast  estate — very  agree- 
able. She  is  young,  pretty,  and  simpatica,  with  a  slight 
figure  and  lambent  eyes — daughter  of  Lord  Halifax,  whom 
you  remember  as  Sir  Charles  Wood,  the  perpetual  Cabinet 
Minister  for  India  when  the  Whigs  were  in.  Then  there 
was  the  stalwart  Bishop  of  Oxford,  with  whom  I  have 
become  on  the  best  of  terms.  And  here  let  me  say  that  if 
I  had  come  without  the  intention  of  burying  the  hatchet, 
in  anything  that  regards  the  American  War,  I  had  better 
"  have  located  myself  in  some  adjoining  country,"  because 
all  English  "  society,"  except  half  a  dozen  individuals,  were 
then  entirely  Southern.  I  don't  think  there  is  any  desire 


1807.]  THE   BISHOP   OF   OXFOED.  285 

to  revive  the  matter  now.  We  are  now  on  the  best  possible 
footing,  socially  speaking.  Mrs.  Grote  told  me  that  all  the 
Englishmen  who  came  back  from  America  were  "perfectly 
overwhelmed "  by  the  spectacle  of  American  energy  and 
power,  and  young  Lord  Mahon  says  that  such  hospitality 
as  he  and  all  his  friends  experienced  in  the  United  States 
was  beyond  all  his  previous  notions.  Lord  Stanhope  said 
that  every  one  said  the  same  thing.  As  this  is  from  the  most 
hospitable  of  families  in  the  most  hospitable  of  countries, 
it  has  a  good  deal  of  meaning.  We  can  certainly  afford 
to  be  magnanimous,  having  achieved  such  a  stupendous 
victory  over  giant  Treason  and  his  pale  terrific  bands  (as  the 
hymn-book  has  it),  and  to  astonish  England  by  our  for- 
giveness. 

And  that  reminds  me  that  Delane  also  was  of  the  party 
during  a  part  of  Saturday  and  Sunday.  He  is  uncommonly 
civil  to  me,  and  it  makes  me  laugh  when  I  think  of  our  noble 
rage  against  the  Times  three  or  four  years  ago.  Now  my 
indifference  is  absolute. 

We  went  one  day  with  barouches  and  ponies  to  Knole. 
But  you  know  that  magnificent  old  Jacobean  mansion,  so  I 
won't  describe  it.  It  at  present  belongs  to  Lady  De  La  Warr, 
and  a  branch  of  the  family  inhabits  it.  On  the  Sunday  we 
had  a  sermon  from  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and  I  was  im- 
mensely struck  by  his  consummate  style  of  pulpit  eloquence — 
familiar  without  approaching  the  verge  of  vulgarity,  didactic 
without  the  slightest  boredom,  fervid  and  touching  without 
bombast,  altogether  a  maitre  accompli,  and  one  could  not 
help  lamenting  that  he  should  not  have  been  at  the  Bar,  or 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  for  he  certainly  would  have  been 
Prime  Minister  or  Lord  Chancellor  by  this  time. 

He  is  a  capital  story-teller,  too,  inimitable  at  the  breakfast 
table  or  when  the  dinner  cloth  is  removed.  Altogether  too 
strenuous,  too  good  and  too  bad  for  the  feeble  role  of  an 
Anglican  bishop.  As  a  cardinal  in  the  days  when  Borne 
had  power,  or  a  prize  fighter  in  the  great  political  ring,  he 
would  have  had  scope  for  his  energies. 

I  don't  know  that  I  need  to  say  much  more  of  the  visit, 


28G  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

which  was  an  uncommonly  successful  one.  I  parted  with  the 
Stanhopes  with  infinite  regret,  for  although  they  insist  that  I 
shall  pay  them  another  visit,  I  am  ashamed  to  show  my  face 
there  again.  Moreover  there  will  be  hardly  time.  I  have 
promised  Lady  Sydney  to  make  them  a  visit. 

Coming  up  to  town  yesterday,  Monday,  I  found  a  note  from 
Lady  Holland,  saying  that  she  had  just  heard  of  my  still 
being  in  town,  and  asking  me  to  dine  Monday  or  any  other 
day. 

I  went  accordingly  to  Holland  House  at  eight,  where  I 
found  the  hostess  as  smiling  and  amiable  as  ever,  and  a  small 

party,  consisting  of  Madame  de ,  a  Kussian,  whose  husband 

is  a  diplomatist,  and  who  knows  all  the  Eussians  whom  we 
know.  She  entreated  me  to  visit  her  at  Paris,  which  she 
inhabits — I  don't  know  whether  officially  or  not.  Then  there 
was  jolly  old  Panizzi,  with  whom  I  am  to  dine  to-day,  to 
meet  a  popish  priest,  Father  Secchi — so  appropriate.  I  am 
supposed  to  be  very  familiar  with  his  name — of  which  I  never 
heard  in  my  life.  Doubtless  he  will  stand  in  the  same  in- 
teresting relation  to  me.  Then  there  was  an  ancient  Orleanist 
Minister,  Comte  de  Pontoise,  who  was  Envoy  at  Washington 
in  Van  Buren's  time — burly,  white-headed,  talkative,  sympa- 
thetic; and  Fleming  and  Charles  Villiers.  The  party  was 
pleasant,  and  it  is  always  a  delight  to  take  coffee  after  dinner 
in  that  noble  and  historic  library,  and  to  imagine  ghosts 
starting  from  every  alcove.  Certainly  if  ever  a  house  de- 
served to  be  haunted,  it  is  Holland  House. 

I  have  lost,  I  deeply  regret  to  say,  the  faculty  of  being- 
much  amused  with  anything  in  the  social  way.  I  thoroughly 
appreciate  it  all  aesthetically — I  entirely  recognise  the  kind- 
ness and  the  hospitality  and  the  charm  of  English  society,  but 
I  feel  the  want  of  work.  If  I  once  lose  the  faculty  of  enjoying 
work,  what  will  become  of  me?  I  am  also  getting  to  be 
greedy  of  time.  As  I  have  more  chance  of  doing  a  little 
work  here  for  the  next  few  weeks  than  anywhere  else,  I  think 
I  shall  renounce  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  before  the  end  of 
September,  although  my  mind  isn't  quite  made  up. 

I  was   delighted  with   Lily's    description   of  Mary's   mad 


1867.]  FKOGNAL.  287 

success  at  H .     The  spectacle  of  the  poor  K of 

howling  for  her  in  his  bereavement,  touches  one  deeply.     It 
is  very  good  of  her  to  speak  to  beings  without   crowns  on 
their  heads,  and  even  to  write  to  me  occasionally. 
God  bless  you — kisses  to  the  girls. 

Ever  your  affectionate  and  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ms  Wife. 

Frognal,  Footscray, 

Sunday,  August  25th,  1867. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — It  is  a  most  beautiful  Sunday  after- 
noon, and  I  may  as  well  employ  a  part  of  the  period  between 
lunch  and  dinner  in  an  English  country  house  in  writing 
a  line  to  you,  particularly  as  I  don't  see  my  way  clear  to 
writing  for  the  next  two  or  three  days.  This  is  a  pretty  old- 
fashioned  manor  house,  in  a  rich,  well  wooded  park,  embowered 
in  roses  and  geraniums,  with  green  umbrageous  oaks  on  the 
wide  lawns,  like  many  other  places  in  this  verdurous  England. 

The  host  and  hostess  are  very  kind,  genial,  high-bred 
people ;  the  guests  are  not  many — Lord  Sandwich,  his  wife  and 
two  daughters.  Lady  Sandwich  was  Lady  Blanche  Egerton, 
daughter  of  the  late  Lord  Ellesmere,  whom  she  accompanied 
to  America  when  he  went  there  for  the  New  York  Exhibition. 
These,  with  an  exceedingly  jolly  and  genial  old  General 
Ashburnham,  who  might  have  sat  for  the  portrait  of  any 
number  of  Washington  Irving's  sketches,  and  Stuart  Wortley, 
make  up  the  party.  It  is  only  a  short-lived  one.  I  came  to 
dinner  yesterday  evening  at  7  P.M.,  and  shall  go  up  at  eleven 
to-morrow,  having  a  good  deal  to  do  in  town  to-morrow  and 
having  promised  to  dine  again  at  Holland  House.  We  went 
to  service  this  morning  at  a  most  beautiful  church,  in  a 
beautiful  country  village,  Chislehurst,  where  the  dead  Towns- 
hends,  the  family  of  Lord  Sydney,  are  deposited,  and  where 
the  eminent  Sir  Francis  Walsingham — of  whom  I  have  had 
occasion  to  write  a  good  deal — lies  buried.  His  daughter, 
by  the  way,  was  the  wife  of  Sir  Philip  Sidney — I  don't  know 


288  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

whether  that  preux  chevalier  was  a  relation  of  this  Lord 
Sydney  or  not — besides  being  the  wife  of  two  other  gentlemen 
successively,  so  that  she  did  not  break  her  heart  for  the 
illustrious  Philip. 

I  saw  Lady  Wm.  Kussell  the  other  day,  and  Lady  Palmerston 
came  in,  looking  as  fresh  and  talking  as  gently  and  smiling 
as  sweetly  and  giving  her  left  hand  as  cordially  as  if  she  were 
a  score  or  two  less  than  her  eighty  summers,  which  were  well 
sounded  last  May.  Harry  Sargent  and  his  wife  and  son  are 
at  Maurigy's,  and  I  have  had  much  pleasure  in  talking  with 
them  as  often  as  I  could  find  them  in  their  room. 

I  dined  the  other  day  at  the  Athenaeum  with  Kinglake,  and 
I  believe  that  is  all  I  have  to  record.  Tuesday  I  have  agreed 
to  go  to  Ampthill,  where  I  shall  stop  but  a  day  or  two,  for  I 
am  impatient  now  to  know  Avhat  I  had  better  decide  to  do. 


To  Us  Wife. 

Grove  Farm,  Leatherliead, 
September  1st,  1867. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAEY, — I  am  down  at  this  charming  little 
place  again  for  a  couple  of  days. 

As  I  have  already  told  you  about  the  place,  and  as  you 
know  the  inhabitants  rather  well  than  otherwise,  there  is  no- 
need  of  my  saying  more  of  my  temporary  whereabouts  than 
that  I  think  I  enjoy  myself  here  more  than  I  do  anywhere — 
away  from   home.      The  weather  is  very  fine  and   the   air 
delicious,  the  country  beautiful.     We  are  going  to  take  a  long 
walk  after  an  hour  or  two,  in  which  I  shall  earn  my  eight 
o'clock  dinner — as  my  breakfast  is  always  very  light  and  my 
luncheon  is  a  glass  of  sherry  and  three  Boston  crackers.   I  am 
getting  very  entertaining,  I  perceive,  not  to  say  sensational. 
By  the  way,  what  an  amazingly  clever  book  in  the  sensational 
line  is '  Black  Sheep.'    I  read  Vol.  II.  in  going  up  to  Ampthill, 
and  it  was  so  enchaining  that  I  couldn't  leave  off  even  in  the 
fly  which  brought  me  from  the  station  to  the  door.     It  was 
luckily  finished  then.      Otherwise  I  should   have   declined 


1867.]  LORD  WENSLEYDALE.  289 

getting  out  until  I  came  to  "  Finis."  This  brings  me  by  easy 
and  artistic  transition  to  the  dear  old  Wensleydales.  (In  a 
parenthesis  let  me  answer  your  question  as  to  who  wrote 
'  Cometh  up  as  a  flower/  It  is  a  Miss  Broughton,  of  a  good 

family  in  shire — I  forget  which — a  young  lady.     As 

you  mentioned  it,  I  took  up  the  second  volume  this  morning 
and  read  it  through  to  the  bitter  end.  It  shows  talent, 
originality,  gushingness  and  go,  certainly.  I  should  think 
the  author  might  do  even  better  another  time.) 

I  believe  I  told  you  all  there  was  to  tell  of  the  party  at  the 
Sydneys'.  I  came  up  on  Monday,  and  that  day  dined  at 
Holland  House  again. 

Thursday  I  went  to  the  Wensleydales'  as  aforesaid.  There 
was  no  party,  as  I  knew  beforehand.  There  had  been  people 
staying  there  when  I  was  first  invited  and  could  not  accept. 
However,  I  was  quite  as  well  pleased.  Certainly  the  spec- 
tacle of  this  extremely  kind-hearted  and  most  intensely 
mutually  affectionate  old  couple  is  as  beautiful  a  picture  in 
its  way  as  the  more  romantic  and  commonplace  portraits  in 
the  spasmodic  novels.  Washington  Irving  or  the  Spectator 
could  have  made  the  world  smile  and  weep  at  the  same  time 
by  depicting  them. 

The  second  day  there  was  a  great  party  of  school  children, 
two  or  three  hundred  in  number,  with  an  unlimited  number 
of  school  teachers  and  country  parsons,  to  disport  in  the 
grounds,  play  games,  and  be  fed  with  tea  and  bread  and 
butter — mostly  children  of  the  humbler  classes,  day  labourers 
and  the  like.  They  enjoyed  themselves  from  2  to  7  P.M. 
very  thoroughly.  Simultaneously  there  was  an  afternoon  tea 
party  of  the  neighbouring  gentry  from  the  country  round. 
Among  them  was  Mrs.  Thynne  (Edith  Sheridan),  who  looked 
rather  prettier  than  ever.  Also  there  were  Lady  Cowper, 
Lady  Florence  and  Lady  Amabel,  who  by  the  way  came  over 
and  dined  the  day  before  with  us. 

Ever  most  lovingly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


VOL.  II. 


290  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

To  Ms  Wife. 

Maurigy's,  September  Qih,  1867. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY< — Your  long,  interesting  letter  of 
September  2nd  gave  me  infinite  pleasure.  Only  it  increased 
my  home-sickness,  for  I  am  every  day  more  and  more  aware 
how  much  I  depend  upon  you,  and  how  impossible  it  is  for 
me  to  get  on  long  without  being  able  to  consult  with  you 
and  talk  with  you  about  things  important  and  unimportant. 
Not  to  put  too  poetical  a  point  upon  it,  a  scissor  parted  from 
its  other  half  is  not  a  more  useless  article  than  I  am  in  my 
present  isolated  condition.  This  I  believe  is  the  real  reason, 
apart  from  the  fact  that  it  is  not  easy  to  write  interesting 
letters  in  railway  carriages  and  in  country  houses,  where  they 
are  always  amusing  you, — of  my  comparative  taciturnity.  I 
will  try  to  do  better,  but  really  in  the  circumstances  it  seems 
to  me  that  a  letter  every  four  and  a  half  days,  according  to  a 
very  accurate  calculation  which  I  have  just  made  in  the 
interests  of  statistical  science,  is  not  so  very  bad.  When  we 
come  together  again — and  thank  Heaven  the  period  is  fast 
diminishing — we  shall  see  which  of  us  has  been  the  most 
copious  correspondent. 

I  have  just  returned  from  Westbrook  Hay  (the  Stratford  de 
Kedcliffes'),  where  I  have  spent  three  or  four  days  (from  Tuesday 
dinner  to  Friday  morning)  most  agreeably.  Nothing  can 
be  kinder  or  more  affectionate  almost  than  the  Stratfords. 
She  insists  on  my  coming  again  and  again,  wanted  me  only  to 
go  to  London  and  come  back  again  the  same  day,  and  so  on. 
He  is  charming,  interesting  and  straightforward,  as  he  always 
was — a  fine  specimen  of  a  manly,  incorruptible,  prejudiced, 
choleric,  handsome,  sympathetic,  diplomatic,  thoughtful, 
wrong-thinking  octogenarian  of  the  elder  epoch.  By  the  way, 
Lyons  was  to  come,  but  was  summoned  to  Balmoral.  I  should 
have  liked  to  talk  American  politics  with  him  privately.  I 
generally  eschew  them  with  others.  The  other  guests  were 
the  dear  delightful  Stanhopes — three ;  Professor  Owen,  whom 
I  like  most  hugely — we  met  him,  if  you  remember,  at  the 
Bates's  at  Sheen — a  tall,  thin,  cadaverous,  lantern-jawed,  bright- 
eyed,  long-chinned,  bald-headed  old  man,  full  of  talk  on  his 


1867.]  WESTBROOK  HAY.  291 

own  subject  of  the  animal  creation,  a  great  friend  and  admirer 
of  Agassiz — an  immense  man,  I  humbly  think,  and  ever  ready 
to  be  pumped  on  scientific  matters :  I  only  wish  I  had  pro- 
fited by  my  opportunities  of  listening.  Miss  C •  and  Miss 

M were  very  cordial  and  nice.     The  eldest  was  away  on 

a  visit.  A  pretty  little  Irishwoman,  Lady  Sophia  Macnamara, 
and  her  husband  and  Lord  Beauchamp  completed  the  party. 
Our  days  were  passed  in  eating  and  drinking  and  going  about 
to  look  at  country  places — Ashridge  (the  family,  Lady  Marian 
Alford,  and  her  son,  Lord  Brownlow,  were  absent)  and  Moor 
Park,  where  Lady  Ebury  did  the  honours  and  gave  us  tea. 
Lord  Ebury,  brother  of  Lord  Westminster,  was  absent. 

On  returning  this  morning  I  find  an  invitation  from  Tom 
Baring  to  Norman  Court,  for  now — which  I  decline,  being 
engaged  at  the  Sturgises'.  Another  from  Lady  Cowper  to 
Wrest  for  the  14th. 

Lovingly  yours,  J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Frampton  Court,  Dorchester, 
September  19th,  1867. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAEY, — To  answer  your  most  important  sug- 
gestions first,  I  inform  you  that  I  hope  to  embrace  you  and 
my  dear  children  by  the  1st  of  October  at  Geneva. 

I  will  also  say  nothing  of  politics ;  we  can  talk  enough  of 
that  when  we  meet.  Alas  !  I  fear  we  shall  never  again  have 
those  long  walks  and  talks  under  the  chestnut  trees  in  the 
Husarzewski  Palais. 

I  came  to  this  delightful  house  last  night.  I  shall  write  to 
the  Duchess  of  Argyll,  to  Mr.  Howard,  to  the  Wensleydales, 
and  many  others  to  whom  I  have  engaged  to  make  visits,  that 
I  have  decided  to  skedaddle  to  the  Continent.  I  have  grave 
doubts  whether  it  would  be  worth  while  to  get  myself  steeped 
again  in  the  fascinations  of  Albion.  The  cultivated  luxury  of 
these  regions  has  poison  in  it,  I  fear.  It  is  well  to  enjoy  it 
once — twice — even  thrice,  as  I  have  done.  But,  after  all,  one 
is  an  exotic  here,  and  it  is  difficult  to  become  more  than  a 

u  2 


292  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

half-hardy  plant  in  an  atmosphere  and  soil  where  one  is  not 
indigenous.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  kindness  and  hospitality 
which  I  have  received  from  everybody,  and  I  haven't  heard 
one  unpleasant  word  from  any  one. 

I  believe  that  my  last  letter  to  Lily  told  my  adventures 
up  to  my  arrival  at  Madresfield  Court.  I  passed  five  days 
there  most  delightfully.  The  only  other  guests  were  the 
Ponsonbys,  who  went  away  a  day  before  I  did.  They  were 
friendly,  sociable  people. 

Madresfield  is  an  old  moated  house,  dating  far  back  into 
the  Plantagenet  days ;  but  of  those  days  nothing  is  left  in 
the  house  but  the  moat  and  the  foundation  walls.  The  rest 
is  a  modern  structure,  to  which  the  present  proprietor  is 
putting  the  last  touches  ;  and  it  is  really  an  imposing  pic- 
turesque house  in  very  excellent  taste.  The  estates  are 
immense.  A  year  or  two  hence,  when  the  great  drawing- 
rooms  are  finished,  the  gardens  laid  out  about  the  house,  and 
the  lumber  cleared  away,  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  charming 
places  in  England.  I  have  vaguely  promised  to  visit  it  again 
at  some  such  epoch,  but  I  suspect  that  this  is  a  very  hazy 
future  indeed.  I  like  Lord  Beauchamp  very  much.  He  is 
rather  an  homme  serieux,  and  excessively  mediaeval,  genial, 
companionable,  and  genuine — very  good-looking,  very  much 
of  a  scholar  and  student. 

You  will  like  to  hear  how  I  have  been  passing  my  time. 
Well,  one  day  we  went — the  Ponsonbys  and  we  two — to  visit 
Witley,  the  magnificent  place  of  Lord  Dudley,  which  I  did 
not  admire.  They  say  that  £200,000  have  been  spent  in 
remodelling  and  furnishing  it,  since  he  bought  it  of  Lord 
Foley,  brother  of  our  Vienna  colonel.  But  it  is  altogether 
too  smart,  gilt  gingerbready,  for  my  taste. 

We  ascended  to  the  summit  of  the  Malvern  Hills,  and 
enjoyed  the  view  over  the  smiling  hills  and  vales  of  Hereford- 
shire^on  one  side,  with  the  hills  of  Wales  in  the  background, 
and --the  wide  sweep  of  beautiful,  highly-cultivated  hills  and 
dales  of  Gloucestershire,  Worcestershire,  and  I  know  not 
what  else.  Another  day  I  went  with  Lord  Beauchamp  and  a 
very  intelligent  clergyman,  Mr.  Munn,  to  Worcester,  to  visit 


1867.]  VISIT  TO  MADRESFIELD.  293 

the  cathedral,  which  is  a  not  very  admirable,  but  still  in 
many  respects  historically  interesting,  church.  We  also 
visited  and  went  duly  through  the  famous  Worcestershire 
potteries  ;  but  I  daresay  you  know  more  about  Worcestershire 
porcelain  now  than  I  do. 

On  the  road  I  saw  a  splendid  villa  built  by  the  proprietor 
of  the  Worcestershire  Sauce. '  Subsequently  I  went  with  Lord 
Beauchamp  to  Tewkesbury,  famous  for  the  bloody  meadow 
fight  where  "  false,  fleeting,  perjured  Clarence  "  committed  his 
celebrated  stabbing  exploits,  for  its  beautiful,  stately,  most 
imposing  Norman  abbey,  and  for  its  mustard.  I  will  give 
you  no  more  descriptions.  We  drove  back  thirteen  miles  to 
Madresfield,  stopping  a  moment  in  the  gloaming  to  inspect 
a  most  delicious  old  timber-skeletoned,  many-gabled,  antique 
old  manor  house,  called  Severn  End,  because  on  the  Severn — 
a  property  of  the  Lechmere  family,  a  branch  of  which  once 
lived  in  Boston,  and  gave  the  name  to  Lechmere  Point  in  our 
harbour.  Lord  Beauchamp,  on  my  stating  this,  said  that  he 
would  tell  the  fact  to  Sir  E.  Lechmere. 

God  bless  you,  my  dearest  dear,  and  my  children  !  I  hunger 
and  thirst  to  see  you  again,  which  will  be  in  a  fortnight,  I 
hope,  at  Geneva.  I  will  try  to  write  to-morrow.  With  love 

and  remembrances  to  all, 

Ever  your  most  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ins  Wife. 


Frampton  Court,  Dorchester, 
September  23rd,  1867. 


MY  DEAREST  MARY, — My  last  was  from  this  place,  dated 
19th  September.  I  have  not  much  to  add  concerning  my 
plans.  I  expect  to  leave  England  by  Tuesday,  1st  October, 
and  to  make  not  more  than  one  night's  delay  before  joining 
you  in  Geneva.  If  I  should  be  obliged  to  make  any  little 
change,  I  will  telegraph.  So  please  don't  be  frightened  or 
flurried  in  the  least  degree  if  you  get  one  of  those  villainous 
despatches.  It  will  be  perfectly  innocuous  in  such  a  case. 


294  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

I  have  just  been  sending  off  my  notes  of  regret  to  invita- 
tions for  visits  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

I  don't  think  there  is  any  danger  of  my  losing  my  Ame- 
rican feelings  and  my  Eepublican  tastes,  and  I  trust  that  I 
can  look  on  these  scenes  of  exquisite  and  intelligent  luxury 
objectively,  as  the  Germans  say,  without  confounding  the 
characters  of  spectator  and  actor.  I  trust  never  to  ask  my 
contemporaries  to  get  out  of  my  way  for  fear  I  should 
walk  over  them,  because  I  have  been  living  among  the 
Brobdignags. 

Moreover,  it  is  only  in  one  sense  that  these  are  Brobdignags. 
And  I  have  a  sincere  belief  that  a  Brobdignag  people  like 
ours  is  the  most  gigantic  phenomenon  that  traveller  or 
philosopher  has  ever  seen  or  imagined,  and  that  it  is  because 
the  giant  is  so  big  and  so  near,  and  grows  so  fast,  and  feels 
his  bigness  so  much  more  and  more  every  day,  that  one  sees 
the  superficial  defects  of  his  complexion  and  the  warts  on 
his  nose. 

I  am  most  sincere  when  I  say  that  I  should  never  wish 
America  to  be  Anglicised,  in  the  aristocratic  sense.  Much  as 
I  can  appreciate  and  enjoy  aesthetically,  sentimentally,  and 
sensuously  the  infinite  charm,  refinement,  and  grace  of  Eng- 
lish life,  especially  country  life,  yet  I  feel  too  keenly  what  a 
fearful  price  is  paid  by  the  English  people  in  order  that  this 
splendid  aristocracy,  with  their  parks  and  castles,  and  shoot- 
ings and  fishings  and  fox -huntings,  their  stately  and  un- 
limited hospitality,  their  lettered  ease  and  learned  leisure, 
may  grow  fat,  ever  to  be  in  danger  of  finding  my  judgment 
corrupted  by  it.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  as  well  not  to 
indulge  too  long  and  too  copiously  in  the  Circean  draughts 
of  English  hospitality. 

I  do  wish  I  could  convey  to  you  a  spiritual  photograph  of 
this  charming  place.  You  know  the  Sheridans ;  she  is  so 
simple-hearted,  kind-hearted,  good,  and  yet  so  strenuous, 
straightforward,  with  cultivated  tastes,  appreciation  of  ex- 
cellence, charitable,  conscientious,  and  true.  As  for  Sheridan, 
he  is  sunshine  itself,  and  you  are  warmed  on  a  rainy  day  by 
knowing  that  he  is  in  the  same  room  with  you.  He  is  so 


1867.]  FKAMPTON  COUKT.  295 

handsome,  gentle,  genial,  with  as  much  real  charm  I  think  as 
it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  have.  I  intended  to  stay  here  a 
couple  of  days,  but  I  have  got  to  consider  myself  almost  a 
part  of  the  establishment ;  and  although  to-day  completes  my 
week,  they  won't  hear  of  my  going  just  yet.  To-morrow  we 
are  going  by  rail  on  a  little  excursion  to  Wey mouth  and 
Portland.  We  were  to  have  done  so  to-day,  but  a  rainy 
equinoctial  storm  seems  to  have  set  in,  and  it  is  postponed 
until  to-morrow.  I  have  a  little  business  in  town,  which  can 
be  done  in  two  or  three  days,  and  I  should  like  to  pass  one 
night  at  the  Lefevres',  and  see  the  Milmans  (who  are  their 
next-door  neighbours)  once  more.  I  also  hope  to  go  to 
the  Sturgises'  for  one  night. 

There  has  been  some  little  company  here,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Dawson  Darner.  She  is  the  daughter  of  Lord  Eokeby,  whose 
place  we  went  to  see  when  I  was  staying  at  the  Stratford  de 
Kedcliffes'.  He  is  a  Crimean  colonel,  son  of  (I  believe)  Lord 
Portarlington,  jolly,  friendly,  and  noisy,  knowing  everybody 
in  the  world  intimately,  from  Mr.  Jerome  and  young  Bennett 
of  the  New  York  Herald  to  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the 
Emperor  of  the  French.  Two  or  three  other  ladies,  one  of 
the  young  Villiers,  another  young  officer  or  two,  and  last 
and  not  least,  Mrs.  Norton.  She  is,  I  think,  in  pretty  good 
spirits,  and  particularly  agreeable.  She  continues  to  take  it 
for  granted  that  I  am  going  to  stay  here  as  long  as  she  does, 
and  that  I  am  to  make  a  long  visit  at  Keir,  where  she  goes 
next  month.  I  have  undeceived  her,  but  she  continues  to 
know  best.  She  talks  very  much  about  you  all  every  day. 
Two  sons  of  the  Sheridans  left  us  yesterday — one  a  young 
cavalry  man,  remarkably  handsome,  gentleman-like ;  the 
other,  Algernon,  a  jolly  young  naval  hero,  very  fat,  funny 
and  intelligent,  evidently  the  noisy  favourite  of  every- 
body far  and  near.  Carlotta  is  here,  and  she  trots  about 
quietly  and  gently,  and  seems  very  obedient  and  well-dis- 
posed. 

The  place  is  charming:  a  square  grey  stone  house,  with 
fine  library,  big  dining-room,  drawing-room,  conservatories, 
aviaries,  and  a  wilderness  of  bedrooms;  grounds  laid  out 


296  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

with  remarkable  taste,  beautiful  verdure,  splendid  oaks  and 
beeches  ;  a  smooth  and  silver  trout  stream,  the  Frome,  sliding 
sweetly  along  the  lawn.  From  Frome  comes  the  name  of 
Frampton,  which  is  a  little  bit  of  a  village,  with  gable-ended, 
honeysuckled,  geranium-decked,  ivy-mantled  cottages,  and 
an  exquisite  church  beneath  the  yew  trees'  shade,  as  pretty  a 
village  as  can  be  found  even  in  England.  There,  I  have 
written  enough  of  this  weak-minded  rubbish,  and  had  better 
conclude.  I  am  delighted  at  the  thought  of  seeing  you  so 
soon  again,  my  dearest ;  and  as  that  happy  time  is  so  near  at 
hand,  I  will  say  nothing  of  politics  or  plans,  particularly  as  I 
have  for  the  moment  precious  little  to  say.  Mr.  Sheridan  has 
been  wondering  why  and  who  has  been  sending  him  the 
Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  which  he  has  kept  carefully  in  his 
study,  and  has  pored  over  conscientiously  to  find  out  some 
passage  in  which  he  might  be  interested.  On  the  cover  of 
one  in  the  waste-basket  I  have  just  showed  him  the  little 
yellow  blob  as  big  as  a  thumb-nail  on  which  the  name  of 
yours  truly  was  printed.  Thus  the  mystery  was  solved.  Also 
the  mystery  for  you  that  they  have  not  been  reaching  you 
regularly.  God  bless  you,  dearest,  and  my  children  three. 

Ever  your  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Earl  Russell. 

December  ±tli,  1867. 

Mr  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  write  to  you,  in  the  first  place,  to 
thank  you  for  your  kind  present  of  your  new  volumes,  and,  in 
the  next  place,  to  express  to  you  the  great  pleasure  I  have 
derived  from  the  one  volume  (the  third)  I  have  had  time  to 
read.  Nothing  more  true  or  more  just  than  your  delineation 
of  the  characters  and  proceedings  of  Philip  the  Second,  Eliza- 
beth, and  Henry  the  Fourth.  There  is  no  one  who  unites  our 
sympathy  so  much  as  William  the  Silent ;  but  the  skill  in 
war  of  Prince  Maurice  and  in  negotiation  of  Barneveld, 
together  with  the  courage  and  perseverance  of  both  in  assert- 


1868.]  ENGAGEMENT   OF  MR.   ODO  RUSSELL.  297 

ing  the  independence  of  their  country,  are  admirably  pour- 
trayed,  so  that  I  shan't  wish  you  to  go  to  sleep  again ;  and  I 
trust  your  Kepublic,  though  it  has  such  trials  still  to  go 
through,  will  never  again  encounter  such  dangers  and  such 
conflicts  as  the  late  civil  war  brought  forth. 

If  you  ever  again  enter  the  ranks  of  diplomacy,  I  hope  we 
may  see  you  here.     Adams,  I  suspect,  must  be  nearly  tired  of 
us.     Amberley  is  delighted  with  his  tour. 
With  my  best  regards  to  your  family, 

I  remain, 

Yours  faithfully, 

KUSSELL. 


To  Lady  William  Russell. 

Rome,  7  Casa  Zuccaro,  64  Via  Sistina, 
March  1th,  1868. 

DEAR  LADY  WILLIAM, — I  will  write  you  a  line  this  morning, 
having  not  exactly  a  respite  from  pain,  but  feeling  a  slight 
slackening  of  the  grip  with  which  the  foul  fiend  has  held  me 
for  these  three  months  past. 

I  cannot  bear  that  you  should  think  me  ungrateful  or  un- 
mindful of  your  constant  kindness  and  friendship,  and  I  hope 
that  Odo  has  told  you  how  nothing  but  physical  incapacity 
to  put  pen  to  paper  would  have  kept  me  silent  so  long, 
especially  as  I  had  a  most  kind  and  affectionate  letter  of 
yours  to  reply  to  almost  immediately  after  my  arrival  in  this 
place.  But  more  than  all  I  have  wished  to  congratulate  you 
on  Odo's  approaching  marriage.  You  cannot  doubt  that  so 
interesting  an  event  to  him  has  awakened  my  warm  sympathy, 
and  that  I  most  sincerely  wish  him  joy.  Not  having  been 
able  to  go  into  the  world  at  all  this  winter,  it  is  only  within  a 
few  days  that  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  making  Lady  Emily's 
acquaintance,  and  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  congratulate  you 
warmly  on  having  gained  so  charming  a  daughter  without 
having  lost  a  son.  I  know  that  Odo  is  the  apple  of  your  eye, 
animse  dimidium  tuae,  and  I  am  delighted  that  his  happiness 


298  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

is  soon  to  increase  yours.  I  thought  Lord  Clarendon  was 
looking  rather  delicate,  but  he  was  as  delightful  as  he  always 
is.  Lady  Clarendon  as  agreeable  and  attractive  as  ever.  I 
regretted  that  my  constant  seclusion  had  allowed  me  but  a 
single  glimpse  of  them.  I  hope  most  earnestly  that  the 
winter  winds  of  your  bleak  island  have  treated  you  with 
tolerable  civility,  and  not  visited  you  too  roughly.  I  should 
like  so  much  to  hear  of  yourself  from  yourself.  I  don't  dare 
to  ask,  I  don't  even  hope  that  you  will  ever  write  to  me  again, 
but  I  assure  you  that  writing  has  been  to  me  an  impossibility. 
Business  letters  I  have  occasionally  dictated  with  much  effort. 
The  hag,  fiend,  fury — Megaera-Tisiphone-Alecto  all  in  one 
poisoner  sorceress  Canidia — who  has  been  torturing  me,  is 
named  Neuralgia.  Neuralgia  of  the  chest  and  back.  In  the 
clutches  of  this  demon  I  have  lain  for  eight  weeks,  and  have 
envied  St.  Lawrence  on  his  gridiron,  and  Montezuma  on  his 
bed  of  coals,  as  being  in  comparatively  cool  and  refreshing 
circumstances.  One-half,  the  right  half  of  the  nerve-network 
of  the  back,  breast,  side,  and  arm  has  been  one  eternal  pain, 
and  I  have  been  howling  like  Prometheus  oime  !  oime  ! 

But  enough  of  my  groanings  and  gruntings ;  and  I  should 
not  have  said  so  much  of  them,  had  I  not  wished  to  prove  to 
you  that  if  I  have  forfeited  one  of  the  great  enjoyments  of 
my  life — that  of  receiving  a  letter  from  you — when  it  is  not 
in  my  power  to  converse  with  you  face  to  face,  it  is  from  no 
negligence,  no  wilful  shortcoming,  no  lack  in  constant  interest 
in  you  and  all  that  is  dear  to  you.  There  is  not  much  stirring 
in  my  hermitage — I  don't  see  the  Storys  half  as  much  as  I 
wish  to  do,  for  it  is  almost  never  that  I  can  accept  their 
hospitable  invitations.  His  '  Peabody '  is  an  immense  success, 
and  I  hope  that  the  London  folk  will  have  the  sense  to 
discover  that  they  have  got  a  great  work  of  art,  really  a 
triumph  of  genius,  in  the  smoky  atmosphere  of  Thread- 
needledom — a  great  statue  of  a  good  man.  There  have 
been  several  conquerors  and  statesmen,  from  time  to  time,  on 
this  planet,  but  there  has  never  been  but  one  Peabody. 
No  man  before,  I  believe,  ever  gave  away  in  his  lifetime  one 
and  a  half  million  pounds  sterling  for  the  good  of  his  fellow- 


1868.]  ROME.  299 

creatures.  This  he  has  done,  and  he  hasn't  yet  stopped 
giving.  He  is  a  Christian,  if  there  ever  was  or  is  to  be  one. 
The  precept  of  Socrates,  uttered  400  B.C.,  Do  unto  others  as 
you  would  that  they  should  do  unto  you,  which  Philosopher 
Kant  denounces  as  folly  and  humbug,  has  at  last  found  one 
practical  expounder.  The  Houghtons  have  just  reached 
Eome.  The  "Bird  of  Paradox"  is  fuller  of  paradoxes  than 
ever.  I  delight  in  him  immensely.  He  has  a  fine  intellect 
and  a  warm  heart,  full  of  kindness  and  Leutseligkeit,  a  thinker 
and  a  good  talker.  My  wife  and  daughter  beg  to  send  you 
their  warmest  love.  Lily  is,  I  am  glad  to  say,  a  good  deal 
better,  and  has  found  much  comfort  in  going  very  constantly 
to  the  San  Onofrio  Hospital,  to  minister  to  the  poor  wounded 
Garibaldians.  The  remnant  of  those  left  alive  are  going  to- 
day to  Florence,  and  her  occupation  will  be  gone. 
Most  affectionately  yours, 

YAEIUS  PEOMETHEUS  MAESYAS. 


From  Mr.  George  Ticknor. 


Boston, 
March  22nd,  1868. 


MY  DEAE  ME.  MOTLEY, — Your  nephew,  Mr.  Stackpole,  was 
at  your  request  good  enough  to  send  me  above  a  week  ago 
the  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  your  *  History  of  the  Nether- 
lands,' and  I  intended  to  have  acknowledged  the  receipt  of 
them  at  once  and  to  have  thanked  you  for  remembering  me  in 
the  distribution  of  your  treasures ;  but  when  a  man  is  past 
seventy-six  he  does  what  he  can  and  not  what  he  may  most 
desire  to  do.  However,  in  justice  to  myself,  I  must  say  that  I 
had  been  beforehand  with  you,  and  had  not  only  run  through 
my  copy  but  lent  it  to  my  old  friend  General  Thayer,  the 
maker  of  West  Point,  with  whom  I  have  been  familiarly  inti- 
mate sixty-three  years,  and  who  at  eighty-three  is  as  capable  of 
enjoying  and  valuing  your  book  as  he  was  at  fifty.  I  thank 
you  therefore  on  his  account  as  well  as  on  my  own.  But 


300  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  Till. 

I  have  been  over  it  only  in  haste  thus  far,  and  when  I  see 
you — you  must  come  soon  or  I  shall  be  gone — I  intend  to  be 
able  to  speak  of  it  more  becomingly  to  yourself  in  person.  At 
present  I  will  only  venture  to  say  that  I  took  great  pleasure 
in  all  that  related  to  France.  It  was  newer  ground  to  me 
than  much  of  the  rest.  Mrs.  Ticknor  desires  to  be  kindly 
remembered  to  Mrs.  Motley  as  well  as  yourself — so  do  I. 

Yours  faithfully, 

GEO.  TICKNOK. 


(    301     ) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

UNITED   STATES   MINISTER   TO   ENGLAND. 

Kcturn  to  Boston — Washington — Interview  with  Mr.  Stunner  and  other  members 
of  Government — General  Thomas — Washington'  Society — Dinner  with  Mr. 
Evarts— M.  de  Magalhaens,  M.  Berthemy,  General  Lawrence,  etc. — Letter 
to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  on  Mr.  Motley's  appointment  as  Minister  to  England — 
Letter  from  Mr.  J.  K.  Lowell  introducing  Mr.  Spelman — Letters  from  Count 
Bismarck — Invitation  to  Varzin — Mr.  George  Bancroft — Letter  to  the 
Duchess  of  Argyll — London  fog — Confidence  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government 
— Disestablishment  of  the  Church  in  Ireland — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes 
— The  Club — Emerson — Longfellow. 

[In  June,  1868,  Mr.  Motley  returned  with  his  family  to 
Boston.  In  the  autumn  he  made  an  important  speech  in 
favour  of  the  election  of  General  Grant  to  the  Presidency,  and 
in  the  following  winter  he  delivered  an  address  before  the 
New  York  Historical  Society.  In  the  spring  of  1869  he  was 
appointed  by  President  Grant  Minister  to  England.] 

To  Ms  Wife. 

Washington, 
Friday  morning,  February  5th,  1869. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  am  writing  a  line  before  breakfast 
merely  to  tell  you  that  I  arrived  most  safely  at  5.30  yesterday 
afternoon.  It  was  really  impossible  for  me  to  write  to  you 
before.  The  journey  was  perfectly  comfortable.  The  snow 
persisted  in  a  weak-minded  way,  amounting  to  nothing  at 
all,  for  the  first  three  or  four  hours ;  then  gave  up  the  attempt 
altogether,  and  faded  into  a  mild  rain.  We  got  to  New  York 
at  five  exactly.  In  the  evening  there  was  thunder  and  light- 


302  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  IX. 

ning,  with  heavy  rain  showers,  altogether  befitting  the  tropical 
winter.  I  found  an  excellent  room  all  ready  for  me  at  the 
Brevoort.  The  next  morning  at  8.40  the  journey  begins 
from  the  Ferry  to  Jersey  City ;  and  we  reached  Washington 
at  5.30.  I  mention  these  facts  for  your  future  benefit — not  as 
interesting  otherwise.  I  had  no  cause  to  regret  my  exclusion 
from  the  compartment  car,  for  the  general  through  car  to 
Washington  was  high,  airy,  very  clean,  not  overheated,  and 
not  more  than  half  full.  There  were  one  or  two  men  and 
brothers  comfortably  seated  in  it,  and  not  a  being  spat. 
The  floor  was  of  inlaid  wood,  the  roof  provided  with  venti- 
lators. I  found  my  host  kindly  waiting  for  me  on  the  plat- 
form, to  take  me  up  in  his  coupe  to  his  comfortable  and  elegant 
mansion.  Sumner  came  to  dine  at  six,  and  we  all  talked 
comfortably  till  ten,  when  he  went  off  to  work  at  his  own 
house,  and  then  Hooper  read  me  a  speech,  which  he  is  to 
speak  probably  to-day — a  very  sound,  sagacious,  and  practical 
speech,  in  excellent  style,  clear  and  simple,  altogether  very 
creditable  to  him,  and  which  I  think  will  do  good.  I  beg 
you  to  read  it  when  it  comes  out.  It  shall  be  sent  to  you 
when  delivered. 

It  was  understood  by  Grinnell,  whom  I  saw  in  New  York, 
that  General  and  Mrs.  Grant,  who  accompanies  him,  were  to 
stay  with  the  Hamilton  Fishes.  But  Sumner  said  last  night 
that  Mrs.  Grant  told  him  they  had  decided  to  go  to  an  hotel. 
Whether  anything  is  to  be  discussed  or  decided  in  this  visit 
about  the  Cabinet  I  don't  know ;  this  I  do  know,  that  up  to 
that  moment — i.e.,  Wednesday  night — he  had  not  said  one 
word  to  Hamilton  Fish  on  the  subject,  nor  to  Grinnell,  nor 
to  any  one.  Mrs.  Grant  asked  Sumner  on  Monday  if  he  knew 
anything  about  the  Cabinet,  to  which  of  course  he  said  no, 
for  he  knows  no  more  than  you  do,  and  she  added  that  the 
General  said  to  her  that  day,  "  Jule,  if  you  say  anything 
more  about  it  I'll  get  leave  of  absence,  go  off  West,  and  not 
come  back  till  the  4th  of  March."  I  am,  of  course,  unable 
to  guess  the  conundrum,  and  am  tired  of  trying,  and  give  it 
up  like  the  rest  of  the  world.  I  am  called  to  breakfast,  and 


1869.]  VISIT  TO  WASHINGTON.  303 

must  break  off  suddenly,  else  I  might  not  be  able  to  write  to- 
day at  all,  so  good-bye  and  God  bless  you,  dearest.  Love  to 
the  girls. 

Ever  thine, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Washington, 
February  8th,  1869. 

MY  DEAKEST  MARY, — I  wrote  to  you  Friday  morning,  and 
I  have  really  nothing  to  say  as  yet  worth  your  reading.  That 
evening  we  had  Governor  Boutwell  and  Senator  Conkling  to 
dinner.  Next  day  Sumner  had  a  little  dinner;  the  only 
guests  besides  ourselves  being  Under-Secretary  Hunter  and 
Senator  Frelinghuysen.  Sumner's  house  is  arranged  with 
great  taste,  and  is  a  very  pretty  establishment.  It  is  quite  a 
museum  of  art.  He  has  a  good  many  very  good  paintings 
and  a  vast  number  of  very  valuable  engravings.  The  dinner 
was  very  good,  and  all  the  appointments  excellent.  Sunday 
we  had  Senator  Howe,  whom  I  like  as  much  as  ever,  finding 
him  very  sympathetic  and  agreeable ;  Mr.  Judd,  the  former 
Minister  to  Berlin,  a  very  lively,  jolly  little  man,  quick,  in- 
telligent, and  most  friendly,  who  had  a  great  deal  to  say  of 
Bismarck's  affection  for  me,  and  that  he  was  always  talking 
about  me,  and  so  on ;  General  Thomas,  the  hero  of  Chickamauga 
and  Nashville,  a  splendid,  soldierly-looking  man,  very  friendly. 
All  have  an  intense  feeling  about  the  Seward-McCracken 
business,  and  it  seems  as  if  nobody  could  ever  express  enough 
indignation  about  it.  I  have  been  up  at  the  Capitol  once, 
going  on  the  floor  of  both  houses.  I  was  introduced  to  about 
twenty  senators  and  as  many  representatives.  I  really  don't 
think  I  could  amuse  you  by  describing  them,  even  if  I  could 
recollect  their  characteristics. 

I  went  to  the  Magalhaens,1  of  course,  sent  up  my  card,  heard 
a  wild  shriek,  and  he  came  flying  down  the  staircase  to  pre- 

1  M.  do  Magalhaens,  then  Brazilian  Minister  at  Washington,  had  been  a 
colleague  of  Mr.  Motley  in  Austria. 


304  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IX. 

cipitate  himself  into  my  arms,  followed  by  the  whole  family. 
We  had  a  meeting  full  of  effusion  and  expansion.  It  was 
really  refreshing  to  find  people  so  glad  to  see  one.  I  went  to 
a  reception  at  the  Colfaxes'  on  Friday  evening.  They  were 
both  very  friendly,  and  I  was  introduced  to  a  good  many 
people.  The  same  evening  we  went  to  a  reception  at  Mrs. 
McCulloch's,  where  also  there  were  a  lot  of  introductions.  I 
made  a  few  calls  on  senators  and  on  some  of  the  dips  with 
Sumner.  I  found  Berthemy  at  home,  and  liked  him.  Thorn- 
ton, just  before  I  came  into  Sumner's,  had  been  waiting  to  see 
me  there  half  an  hour.  We  called  there  subsequently,  but 
he  was  still  out.  We  saw  Mrs.  Thornton.  I  saw  Favernay 
a  moment  at  Berthemy 's.  Lee  has  been  to  see  me  two  or 
three  times,  likewise  Judge  Loring  and  Mrs.  Loring,  who 
thought  you  were  here.  I  am  going  to  call  on  Evarts  to-day, 
that  is  to  say,  to  leave  a  card,  as  he  too  waited  some  time  at 
Sumner's  the  same  day,  and  expressed  a  strong  wish  to  make 
my  acquaintance.  I  saw  Stanton  at  his  house  yesterday.  He 
has  a  bad  attack  of  bronchial  asthma,  but  was  glad  to  receive 
visitors.  He  was  so  exactly  what  I  expected  to  find  him,  and 
the  girls  know  him  so  well,  that  I  shan't  describe  him.  I 
went  last  evening  to  a  large  ball  or  dancing  party  at  Senator 
Morgan's,  who  has  a  fine  and  very  large  house  close  by  ours. 
There  were  not  a  great  many  interesting  people  there.  I  was 
introduced  to  a  great  many  des  deux  sexes  et  autres. 

Ever  most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Washington, 
Monday,  February  15th,  1869. 

MY  DEAEEST  MARY, — I  can  speak  at  first  of  nothing  but  the 
weather.  I  am  writing  by  a  wide-open  window,  without  a 
spark  on  the  hearth.  Thermometer  at  ten  o'clock  60°  in  the 
shade.  Saturday  and  Sunday  were  like  the  finest  winter  days 
of  Nice — finer  than  Home,  because  there,  when  the  weather  is 


1869.]  WASHINGTON.  305 

perfectly  clear,  as  it  has  been  here,  there  is  always  a  sharp 
tramontana,  and  the  difference  between  sun  and  shade  is 
great.  Here  there  is  a  faint  breeze  from  the  south,  and  the 
atmosphere  cloudless.  Last  night  it  rained  in  torrents — a 
warm  summer  rain — and  to-day  it  is  like  a  fine  morning  in 
May.  Enough  of  the  weather,  which  I  hope  will  be  only  half 
as  fine  when  you  arrive. 

Saturday  I  dined  at  the  Evarts'.  He  is  very  agreeable, 
lively,  full  of  fun,  very  good  company,  brilliant,  ambitious. 
Mrs.  Evarts  is  agreeable  and  ladylike.  I  went  in  to  dinner 
with  Mrs.  Senator  Sherman,  who  sat  on  the  Attorney-General's 
left ;  on  his  right  was  Mrs.  Thornton ;  next  to  her,  Sumner. 
On  Mrs.  Evarts's  right  was  the  Chief  Justice ;  on  her  left,  Mr. 
Thornton.  The  other  guests  were  Senator  Sherman,  Senator 
Williams  of  Oregon,  mit  frau;  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Biggs,  Miss 
Chase,  Senator  Frelinghuysen,  sammt  frau  ;  Miss  Hoar,  sister 
of  our  Massachusetts  judge,  staying  in  the  house,  and  one  or 
two  others.  The  dinner  was  good.  There  were  twenty-two ; 
and  the  table  was  placed  diagonally  across  the  room,  a  dodge 
to  gain  space  which  I  have  never  seen  before.  I  have  not 
much  to  report  about  this  banquet.  I  liked  Mrs.  Sherman 
very  much,  as  I  do  her  husband.  The  General  is  expected 
here  next  week.  He  is  brother  to  the  Senator,  and  I  shall 
like  to  make  his  acquaintance.  Everybody  says  he  is  a  man 
of  genius,  and  very  magnetic.  I  like  the  Thorntons.  He  has 
been  two  or  three  times  to  see  me,  but  I  never  met  him  before. 
I  shall  go  there  to-day.  Yesterday,  Hooper  and  I  both  dined 
at  Berthemy's,  the  French  Envoy,  a  man's  dinner.  Cerrutti, 
the  Italian  Minister,  Bille,  Favernay,  Sumner,  Ford,  and  Ward, 
an  unfortunate  Envoy  from  the  United  States  of  Colombia, 
supposed  to  be  a  General  and  a  President  in  his  own  country, 
but  who  literally  speaks  nothing  but  Spanish,  not  one  word  of 
French  or  English,  and  with  whom  conversation  is  therefore 
limited.  General  Lawrence  was  also  there,  with  whom  I  dine 
Wednesday.  He  lost  an  arm  in  the  war.  Berthemy  is  a  serious, 
agreeable,  thinking,  observing,  capable  man,  who  has  probably 
a  considerable  future  before  him.  His  present  ambition  is  the 
Embassy  at  Constantinople.  My  dinner  to-day  is  with  the 

VOL.  II.  X 


306  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP,  IX, 

Magalhaens,  at  which  Ulysses  is  expected.  By  the  way,  he 
dines  out  no  more  after  Lawrence's  dinner.  I  went  up  Satur- 
day morning  to  make  a  call  on  Mrs.  Grant,  it  being  her 
reception  day.  We  found  the  General  there  likewise.  The 
room  was  so  dark,  the  curtains  and  blinds  being  closed  tight 
on  account  of  Mrs.  Grant's  eyes,  that  I  really,  coming  out  of 
the  intense  sunshine,  couldn't  see  either  of  them  plainly. 
There  were  many  visitors  coming  and  going,  so  that  beyond  a 
few  formal  words  I  saw  and  heard  nothing. 

Ever  thine, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Washington, 
Wednesday,  February  17th,  1869. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAEY, — I  forget  where  my  last  letter  left  off. 
I  think  I  told  you  that  I  dined  Sunday  with  Berthemy ;  Mon- 
day I  dined  at  the  Magalhaens'.  Mrs.  Grant  didn't  come ;  she 
has  as  bad  a  cold  as  you,  I  fear.  We  got  General  Grant  to 
talk  very  glibly  of  his  Mexican  adventures  in  youth  and 
Western  life,  and  he  was  very  nice  and  genial.  The  other  guests 
were  the  Gerolts,  General  Lawrence  and  his  wife,  ra  pleasing 
woman,  blonde  and  young  ;  Badeau,  the  Portuguese  Minister, 
Berthemy,  and  I  don't  remember  any  others.  The  dining- 
room  is  small,  holding  hardly  more  than  a  dozen  or  fourteen, 
and  a  tight  fit  at  that.  After  dinner  we  went  up,  four  or  five 
of  us,  to  Magalhaens'  study  and  smoked.  Grant  was  chatty, 
genial,  and  nice. 

Yesterday,  Hooper  and  I  both  dined  with  Blaque  Bey,  the 
Turkish  Envoy,  a  facile,  knowing,  agreeable  sort  of  man, 
like  many  of  those  Levantines.  He  is  a  Catholic,  so  he  told 
me,  because  he  happened  to  be  bom  so.  He  would  as  lief 
have  been  a  Mussulman,  only  the  renegades  are  not  well  con- 
sidered, only  their  conversion  is  held  a  triumph  for  the 
Church  of  Mahomet.  The  party  was  of  men  only.  The 
company  was  Berthemy,  Thornton,  Sumner,  Delfosse  the 
Belgian  Minister,  General  Schenk,  and  the  Portugee.  I  think 


1869.]  DINNER  PARTIES.  307 

these  were  all,  except  a  secretary  or  two.  It  was  rather  a 
good  and  jolly  dinner,  and  it  seems  like  old  times  to  be 
among  dips  again,  who  all  receive  me  as  a  colleague  and  old 
friend.  Berthemy  had  a  good  deal  to  say  about  the  McCrac- 
ken  affair,  and  of  the  immense  sensation  it  produced,  and  the 
indignation  excited  in  Washington  and  all  over  the  country, 
far  greater,  he  said,  than  it  was  possible  for  me  to  conceive  of. 
He  had  written  at  that  time  a  long  despatch  to  his  Government 
entirely  about  that  incident,  and  he  attributed  very  much  of 
the  subsequent  unpopularity  of  Seward  and  Johnson  to  their 
conduct  on  that  occasion.  To-day  I  dine  with  the  Lawrences, 
to  meet  Grant.  To-morrow  we  have  half  a  dozen  gentlemen 
to  dine  here.  It  is  the  greatest  dining-place  I  have  seen  since 
London.  I  could  run  on  for  an  hour  more,  dear  Mary,  but  I 
really  must  stop  short,  as  I  shall  not  accomplish  half  the 
nothings  that  must  be  done  to-day.  God  bless  you. 


To  his  Wife. 

Washington, 
February  19th,  1869. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — On  Wednesday  I  dined  with  General 
Lawrence — a  regular  banquet  for  Grant;  thirty-two  persons. 
Mrs.  Grant  was  prevented  by  a  cold  from  coming.  The 
dinner  was  splendid,  and  lasted  three  hours  and  a  quarter, 
from  half-past  seven  to  a  quarter  to  eleven.  The  table  was 
covered  with  camellias,  like  a  garden.  Madame  Magalhaens, 
who  was  my  dame,  began  counting  the  total  cost  at  fifty  cents 
per  camellia,  and  I  congratulated  her  on  being  so  soon  and 
thoroughly  Americanized  herself.  Mrs.  Lawrence  sat  in  the 
middle  of  the  long  table,  with  Ulysses,  of  course,  on  her  right, 
and  Berthemy  on  her  left;  General  Lawrence  sat  opposite, 
Mrs.  Senator  Chandler  on  his  right,  and  Madame  Magalhaens 
on  his  left.  I  was  on  her  left,  and  just  opposite  Grant.  On 
my  left  was  Madame  Bodisco.  Next  to  Grant's  other  side  was 
Madame  Mazel,  a  very  young  and  pretty  New  York  girl, 
married  a  few  weeks  ago  to  the  Dutch  Minister  of  that  name. 

x  2 


308  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Other  guests,  so  far  as  I  remember,  were  Judge  Field,  General 
Meigs,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bathbone,  Senator  Anthony,  the  Italian 
Minister,  Badeau,  and  a  lot  more.  I  had  no  conversation  with 
Ulysses.  He  came  up  to  me  before  dinner,  very  amicably 
shook  hands,  and  exchanged  a  few  words,  and  passed  on  to  the 
other  thirty  guests.  There  was  a  very  brief  smoking  space 
after  dinner,  and  Grant  went  off  very  soon 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

363,  H  Street,  Washington, 
April  16th,  1869. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES, — I  knew  that  I  should  have  a  kind  and 
sympathetic  word  from  you,  and  I  value  the  note  just  received 
from  you  very  highly.  You  have  always  over-appreciated 
me.  This  I  feel,  but  still  it  gives  me  pleasure,  and  your 
genuine  and  friendly  sympathy  always  touches  me  deeply. 
I  feel  anything  but  exaltation  at  present,  rather  the  opposite 
sensation.  I  feel  that  I  am  placed  higher  than  I  deserve, 
and  at  the  same  time  that  I  am  taking  greater  responsibilities 
than  ever  were  assumed  by  me  before.  You  will  be  indulgent 
for  my  mistakes  and  shortcomings,  but  who  can  expect  to 
avoid  them  ?  But  the  world  will  be  cruel  and  the  times  are 
threatening.  I  shall  do  my  best,  but  the  best  may  be  poor 
enough,  and  keep  a  "  heart  for  any  fate."  Pardon  my  brevity, 
but  I  have  no  time  to  do  half  what  I  have  to  do. 

Always  most  truly  and  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  J.  R.  Lowell 

Elniwood, 
May  15th,  1869. 

MY  DEAK  MOTLEY, — I  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to 
you  my  friend,  Mr.  Spelman,  of  Cambridge,  who  is  to  be  your 
fellow-passenger  to  England.  I  am  sure  you  will  thank  me 
for  opening  the  way  to  a  more  cordial  intercourse  than  is 


1869.J  INVITATION  TO  VARZIN.  309 

ordinarily  reached  by  mere  steamship  communion.  Mr.  Spel- 
man  is  on  his  way  to  join  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Ernest  Longfellow, 
in  Europe. 

I  need  not  say  that  all  my  hopes  and  good  wishes  accompany 
you  and  yours  to  your  new  post  of  honour  and  duty.  I  can  think 
of  no  man  so  fit  to  bring  back  a  more  kindly  understanding 
between  the  two  countries.  You  will  neither  forget  your  own 
nationality  nor  irritate  that  of  England. 

May  all  prosperity  attend  you !  I  remain  most  cordially — 
no,  that  will  never  do — I  take  this  opportunity  of  renewing 
my  assurances  of  distinguished  consideration, 

And  am  faithfully  yours, 

J.  K.  LOWELL. 


From  Count  Bismarck. 

Varzin, 
August  7th,  1869. 

LIEBEK  MOTLEY, — Dass  Du  mir  schriebst  war  einer  der 
besten  Einfalle  die  Du  seit  langer  Zeit  gehabt  hast,  und  gewiss 
wirst  Du  viele  gute  haben.  Deine  Beschuldigung  aber,  dass 
ich  Dir  nicht  geantwortet  haben  sollte,  klingt  mir  ganz 
unglaublich  ;  Du  sagst  es,  also  muss  es  wahr  sein,  aber  das 
Bewusstsein  meiner  Tugend  ist  so  stark  in  mir,  dass  ich 
lieber  die  Kegelmassigkeit  des  meiner  Leitung  anvertrauten 
Norddeutschenpostdienstes  anzweifle,  als  an  meine  personliche 
Nachlassigkeit  glaube.  Keine  Post  taugt  heut  zu  Tage 
Etwas,  die  Welt  wird  iiberhaupt  immer  schlechter.  Doubt 
that  the  stars  are  fire  u.  s.  w.,  aber  zweifle  nicht  an  meiner 
Tugend.  Seit  drei  Wochen  lag  das  Papier  fertig  um  Dir  nach 
London  zu  schreiben,  und  Dich  zu  fragen,  ob  Du  nicht  eine 
Woche  oder  zwei  fur  mich  iibrig  hattest ;  zur  Genugthuung 
fur  deine  heimliche  Flucht  iiber  See  solltest  Du  uns  die 
Freude  machen,  alle  Tinte,  Hausemiethen  und  Englander  auf 
einige  Zeit  aus  deinem  Sinne  zu  verbannen,  und  dein  Wigwam 
in  die  pommerschen  Walder  verlegen.  Die  Sache  is  heut  so 
leicht  fiir  einen  oceanischen  Keisenden,  wie  es  friiher  war  von 
Berlin  nach  Gottingen  zu  fahren.  Du  gibst  deiner  Frau 


310  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Gemahlin  den  Arm,  besteigst  rait  ihr  ein  Cab,  bist  in  20 
Minuten  auf  dem  Bahnhofe,  in  30  Stunden  in  Berlin,  und 
von  dort  in  einem  halben  Tage  hier ;  um  9  aus  Berlin  fahrend, 
bis  Du  zu  Mittag  bei  uns.  Es  ware  reizend;  meine  Frau, 
Tochter,  ich  und  Sohne,  die  ich  in  2  Tage  erwarte,  wiirden  sich 
kindisch  freuen  und  wir  wollen  dann  einmal  wieder  ganz  so 
lustig  sein,  wie  in  alter  Zeit.  Ich  selbst  kann  augenblicklich 
nicht  reisen,  ohne  alle  Grunde  urnzustossen,  aus  denen  ich 
Urlaub  habe.  Sonst  sucht  ich  Dich  auf  um  Dich  hier  in  die 
Backwoods  abzuholen ;  aber  bitte  komm,  wirf  alle  Sorgen  und 
Bedenken  hinter  den  Ofen,  die  findest  Du  da  unversehrt 
wieder  bei  deiner  Kiickkehr,  und  richte  Dich  ein  auf  kurze 
oder  lange  Zeit,je  langer  je  lieber,  aber  mache  uns  dieFreude 
und  komm  her.  Ich  bin  so  in  den  Gedanken  schon  eingelebt, 
dass  ich  krank  werde  wenn  Du  nein  sagst,  und  das  wiirde  die 
iibelsten  Einfliisse  auf  die  ganze  Politik  haben.  Empfehle 
mich  deiner  Frau  Gemahlin  zu  Gnaden. 

Dein  treuer  Freund, 
V.  BISMARCK. 

Translation. 

Varan, 
August  7th,  1869. 

DEAR  MOTLEY, — Your  writing  to  me  was  one  of  the  best 
ideas  that  you  have  had  for  a  long  time,  and  you  are  certain 
to  have  many  good  ones.  Your  accusation  against  me  that  I 
did  not  answer  you,  sounds  to  me,  however,  quite  incredible. 
You  say  so,  so  it  must  be  true ;  but  the  consciousness  of  my 
virtue  is  so  strong  in  me,  that  I  prefer  to  doubt  the  North 
German  Postal  Service,  which  is  confided  to  my  care,  rather 
than  believe  in  my  personal  negligence.  No  post  in  these 
days  is  worth  anything,  the  world  generally  is  always  growing 
worse.  Doubt  that  the  stars  are  fire,  etc.,  but  never  doubt  my 
virtue.  For  three  weeks  my  paper  has  been  lying  ready  to 
write  to  you  in  London  to  ask  you  if  you  have  not  a  week  or 
two  to  spare  for  me ;  to  make  up  for  your  secret  flight  across 
the  ocean.  You  should  do  us  the  favour  to  banish  all  ink, 
house-hunting,  and  Englishmen  for  a  time  from  your  mind 


1869.]  KECALL   OF  ME.  BANCROFT  FROM  BERLIN.  311 

and  to  transport  your  wigwam  to  the  Pomeranian  woods. 
The  afiair  is  as  easy  in  these  days  for  an  ocean  traveller  as  it 
used  to  be  to  go  from  Gottingen  to  Berlin.  You  give  your 
arm  to  your  wife,  enter  a  cab  with  her,  in  twenty  minutes  you 
are  at  the  station,  in  thirty  hours  in  Berlin,  and  from  there,  in 
half  a  day,  here  ;  leaving  Berlin  at  nine  o'clock  you  are  here 
to  dinner — it  would  be  delightful.  My  wife,  daughter,  myself, 
and  my  sons,  whom  I  expect  in  a  week,  would  be  as  pleased 
as  children,  and  we  would  be  as  merry  again  as  in  old  days. 
Personally,  I  cannot  travel  at  this  moment  without  upsetting 
all  the  reasons  for  which  my  leave  is  granted,  otherwise  I 
would  come  and  find  you  and  bring  you  to  the  backwoods ; 
but  please  come,  throw  all  cares  and  worries  behind  the  stove, 
where  you  will  be  sure  to  find  them  unconsumed  on  your  return, 
and  arrange  to  stay  a  short  or  a  long  time,  but  the  longer  the 
better ;  but  give  me  the  pleasure  of  coming  here.  I  have 
absorbed  myself  so  in  the  thought  that  I  shall  be  ill  if  you 
say  no,  and  that  would  have  the  worse  effect  on  politics.  My 
respectful  remembrances  to  your  wife. 

Your  true  friend, 

Y.  BISMARCK. 

From  Count  Bismarck. 

Varzin, 
September  19tht  1869. 

LIEBEK  MOTLEY, — Ich  hore  aus  Paris,  dass  man  uns  Bancroft 
nehmen  will,  weil  er  angeblich  America  nicht  mit  Wiirde  ver- 
trete.  Die  Behauptung  wird  in  Berlin  niemand  theilen ;  Ban- 
croft steht  dort  bei  der  ganzen  intelligenten  Bevolkerung, 
insbesondere  bei  der  wissenchaftlichen  Welt,  in  der  hochsten 
Achtung,  ist  am  Hof  und  in  den  Kreisen  der  Eegierung  geehrt 
und  hat  das  voile  Vertrauen.  Man  weiss,  dass  er  unser  Freund 
ist,  er  hat  das  niemals  verschwiegeu,  und  sich  deshalbs  die 
Feindschaft  aller  in-  und  auslandischen  Gegner  des  jetzigen 
Zustande  Deutschlands  zugezogen.  Man  hat  fur  das  Geld  des 
friiheren  Konigs  von  Hannover,  des  Kurfursten  von  Hessen 
und  fur  Kechnungen  fremder  Kegierungen  gegen  ihn  intri- 
guirt  in  der  Presse  und  voraussichtlich  auch  in  America. 


312  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IX, 

Aber  ich  glaube  kaum,  dass  irgend  ein  Freund  Amerikas  und 
Deutschlands,  irgend  Einer  von  alien  Denen,  welche  die  brii- 
derlichen  Beziehungen  zweier  freien  Cultur-Yolker  mit  Yer- 
gniigen  sehen,  an  diesen  Intriguen  betheiligt  sein  kann. 
Bancroft  ist  einer  der  popularsten  Erscheinungen  in  Berlin, 
und  wenn  Du  noch  das  alte  Wohlwollen  fiir  die  Stadt  hast  die 
Du  aus  dem  Fenster  des  Logierschen  Hauses  kennst  so  thue 
was  Du  kannst,  damit  wir  ihn  behalten.  Nach  den  culturge- 
schichtlichen  Auffassungen,  die  Du  in  der  Lecture,  die  Du  mir 
vor  einigen  Monaten  iibersandtest,  bekundet  hast,  gehen  deine 
politischen  Bestrebungen  mit  denen,  die  Bancroft  bei  uns 
vertritt,  vollstandig  parallel,  und  man  wiirde  bei  uns  glau- 
ben,  dass  die  Staatenregierung  sich  von  diesen  Auffassungen 
lossagte,  durch  die  Kuckberufung  eines  Ministers  der  als  ihr 
Vertreter  gilt,  und  mit  Kecht  gilt.  Er  vertritt  practisch,  den- 
selben  grossen  Entwicklungsprocess  in  welchen  Moses,  die 
Christlichen  Offenbarung,  die  Keformation  als  Etapen  erschei- 
nen,  und  dem  gegeniiber  die  casarische  Gewalt  der  alten  und 
der  modernen  Zeit,  die  klericale  und  die  dynastische  Ausbeu- 
tung  der  Yolker,  jeden  Hemmschuh  anlegt,  auch  den  ein  en 
ehrlichen  und  idealen  Gesandeten  wie  Bancroft  zu  verlaumden. 
Yerhindre  wenn  Du  kannst,  dass  mann  ihn  opfert,  er  ist  besser 
als  die  meisten  Europaer  die  sein,  dein,  und  mein  Gewerbe 
betreiben,  wenn  auch  die  glatten  Liigner  des  Gewerbes  eben 
so  iiber  ihn  reden  mogen  wie  friiher  meine  intime  Feinde  mich 
den  Diplomaten  in  Holzschuhen  nannten.  Mir  geht  es  sonst 
hier  gut,  ich  schlafe  allmalig  besser,  aber  noch  zu  spat  am 
Tage  um  Arbeitsfahig  zu  sein  ;  taglich  von  vier  bis  eilf,  friiher 
nicht.  Dass  Du  uns  nicht  besuchen  kannst  thut  mir  uber 
Alles  leid;  meine  Frau  hatte  sicher  darauf  gerechnet,  im 

Winter  aber  in  Berlin  rechne  auch  ich  darauf ; 

>•*"'•-.•'  .  '.  .  fiir  uns  hausbackne  Deutsche bist  Du  nun  schon 
zu  vornehm  geworden  ;  behaglicher  wiirdest  Du  bei  uns  leben, 
als  dort  am  Ocean  vis  a  vis  von  zu  Haus.  Meine  herzlichsten 
Empfehlungen  an  deine  Frau  Gemahlin,  und  dieselben  von 
meinen  Damen. 

Dein, 

V.  BISMARCK. 


1869.]  MR.  BANCROFT.  313 

Translation. 

Varzin, 
September  19th,  1869. 

DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  hear  from  Paris  that  they  are  thinking 
of  taking  Bancroft  from  us,  under  the  pretence  that  he  does 
not  represent  America  with  sufficient  worthiness.  This  asser- 
tion will  not  be  shared  in  by  anybody  in  Berlin,  as  Bancroft 
stands  in  the  highest  esteem  there  with  the  whole  intelligent 
population,  particularly  with  the  scientific  world,  is  honoured 
at  Court,  and  in  the  Government  circles,  and  has  full  confi- 
dence. It  is  known  that  he  is  our  friend,  he  has  never  con- 
cealed it,  and  therefore  has  drawn  upon  himself  the  enmity  of 
all  the  opponents  of  the  present  state  of  things  in  Germany 
both  within  and  without.  For  the  money  of  the  former  King 
of  Hanover,  and  of  the  Elector  of  Hesse,  and  on  behalf  of 
foreign  Governments,  they  have  intrigued  against  him  in  the 
press,  and  probably  also  in  America.  But  I  hardly  believe 
that  these  intrigues  can  be  shared  by  any  friend  of  America  and 
Germany,  or  any  of  those  who  see  with  pleasure  the  brotherly 
relations  between  two  free  cultured  people.  Bancroft  is  one 
of  the  most  popular  personages  in  Berlin,  and  if  you  have  still 
the  old  goodwill  for  the  town  that  you  had  when  you  looked  out 
of  the  windows  of  Logier's  house,  do  what  you  can  to  enable 
us  to  keep  him.  According  to  the  conception  that  you  have 
set  forth  as  to  the  history  of  civilization  in  the  "  Lecture  " 
that  you  sent  me  a  few  months  ago,  your  political  aims  and 
those  that  Bancroft  expresses  here  entirely  correspond,  and  it 
would  be  believed  among  us  that  the  Government  had  re- 
nounced these  by  the  recall  of  a  Minister  who  is  considered, 
and  rightly  considered,  their  representative.  He  represents 
practically  the  same  great  process  of  development  in  which 
Moses,  the  Christian  revelation,  and  the  Keformation,  appear 
as  stages,  and  in  opposition  to  which  the  Caesarian  power  of 
ancient  and  modern  time,  the  clerical  and  dynastic  prejudices 
of  the  people,  offer  every  hindrance,  including  that  of  calum- 
niating an  honest  and  ideal  Minister  like  Bancroft.  If  you  can, 
do  prevent  him  from  being  sacrificed ;  he  is  better  than  most 


314  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IX. 

of  the  Europeans  who  follow  his,  yours,  and  my  profession ; 
even  if  the  smooth  liars  of  the  profession  should  talk  about  him 
exactly  as  my  intimate  enemies  did  about  me,  when  they 
called  me  the  diplomatist  in  wooden  shoes.  Otherwise  I  am 
getting  on  well  here.  I  sleep  gradually  better,  but  still  too 
late  in  the  day  to  be  fit  for  work — every  day  from  four  to  eleven, 
but  not  earlier.  That  you  cannot  visit  us  now  grieves  me  above 
everything.  My  wife  had  counted  upon  it  with  certainty,  but 
in  Berlin  I  count  upon  it  too.  You  have  grown  too  fine  for 
us  homely  Germans,  although  you  would  live  more  comfortably 
with  us  than  there  by  the  ocean  opposite  your  home. 

My  affectionate  compliments  to  your  wife,  and  the  same 
from  my  ladies. 

Yours, 

Y.  BISMAKCK. 


From  Count  Bismarck. 

Varzin, 
October  10th,  1869. 

MY  DEAE  MOTLEY, — Feeling  very  proud  that  your  ladies 
wish  to  see  me  photographed,  I  hasten  to  send  you  two  melan- 
cholic civilians  and  a  fat  melancholy  gentleman,  who  seems 
not  a  bit  concerned  in  all  the  plague  that  Ministers  and  par- 
liamentary life  are  subject  to.  I  must  be  fully  satisfied  by  the 
honour  of  their  admission  to  the  ladies'  albums ;  but  if  you 
were  good  enough  to  send  me  a  return  of  male  and  female 
portraits,  such  an  act  of  benevolence  would  increase  and  fortify 
my  domestic  authority.  I  am  very  much  obliged  for  your 
prompt  proceedings  in  the  Bancroft  question.  They  write 
me  from  Berlin  that  in  his  own  opinion  his  position  at  home 
is  a  safe  one ;  but  it  is  a  fact  that  French  influence  is  at  work 
against  him,  and  that  at  Paris  they  believe  to  have  been 
successful  in  upsetting  him.  Ich  verliere  so  sehr  die  Gewohn- 
heit  englisch  zu  sprechen,  da  Loftus  in  Berlin  der  einzige 
Mensch  ist,  der  mir  Gelegenheit  dazu  giebt,  und  schreiben 
konnte  ich  es  nie  ohne  Worterbuch,  da  ich  es  nach  dem 


1869.]  COUNT  BISMARCK.  315 

Schall  und  aus  der  Uebung  erlernt  hatte.  Entschuldige  obigen 
Yersuch,  den  ich  als  Schulexercitum  fiir  mich  ansehe.  Ich 
weiss  nicht,  ob  ich  bald  nach  Berlin  gehe  ;  vor  dem  Isten  Dec. 
schwerlich.  Ich  mochte  gem  abwarten  ob  mir  der  Landtag 
nicht  den  Gefallen  thut  einige  meiner  Collegen  zu  erschla- 
gen;  wann  ich  unter  Ihnen  bin,  so  kommt  die  Schonung 
die  man  mir  gewahrt  den  Andern  auch  zu  gut.  Unsere  Yer- 
haltnisse  sind  so  sonderbar  dass  ich  zu  wunderlichen  Mitteln 
greifen  muss  urn  Anbindungen  zu  losen,  die  gewaltsam  zu 
zerreissen  mir  manche  Kiicksichten  verbieten.  Jedenfalls 
hoffe  ich  so  bald  wieder  in  der  Stadt  bin  naheres  iiber  deinen 
Urlaub  zu  horen  und  Gewissheit  iiber  die  Zeit  deines  Besuches 
zu  bekommen ;  dann  wollen  wir  uns  einander  einmal  wieder  in 
Logier's  Haus  an  eine  Schachpartie  setzen,  und  dariiber 
streiten  ob  Byron  und  Goethe  in  Yergleich  zu  stellen  sind. 
Wir  waren  damals,  glaube  ich,  bessere  Menschen  in  bessere 
Zeiten,  d.  h.  jiinger.  Empfehle  mich  deinen  Damen. 

Dein, 

Y.  BISMARCK. 

Translation  of  German  part  of  Letter. 

I  am  quite  losing  the  habit  of  speaking  English,  as  Loftus 
in  Berlin  is  the  solitary  person  who  gives  me  an  opportunity, 
and  I  never  could  write  it  without  a  dictionary,  as  I  learnt  it 
by  the  sound  and  by  ear ;  so  excuse  the  above,  which  I  look 
upon  as  a  school  exercise  for  myself. 

I  do  not  know  if  I  am  going  to  Berlin  soon  ;  hardly  before 
the  1st.  I  should  like  to  wait  and  see  if  the  Landtag  will  not 
do  me  the  favour  of  killing  a  few  of  my  colleagues ;  when  I 
am  there  among  them  the  forbearance  vouchsafed  to  me  is 
extended  to  the  rest.  The  state  of  affairs  with  us  is  so  immoral 
that  I  have  to  resort  to  peculiar  methods  of  loosening  relations 
which  many  considerations  prevent  me  from  forcibly  rending 
asunder.  In  any  event,  as  soon  as  I  am  in  town  again,  I  hope 
to  hear  more  about  your  leave,  and  hear  certainly  about  the 
time  of  your  visit.  Then  we  will  sit  down  again  to  a  game  of 
chess  at  Logier's  house,  and  dispute  as  to  whether  Byron  and 


316  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Goethe  can  be  compared  to  each  other.     I  think  we  were  then 
better  men  in  better  times,  this  is  to  say,  younger. 

Remember  me  to  your  ladies. 

l  ours, 

V.  B. 


To  the  Ducliess  of  Argyll. 

17,  Arlington  Street, 

January  25th,  1870. 

DEAR  DUCHESS  OF  AKGYLL, — We  had  the  great  pleasure  of 
seeing  the  Duke  yesterday,  and  of  having  therefore  from  the 
highest  source  the  delightful  assurance  that  you  were  going 
on  as  well  as  your  friends  could  possibly  hope. 

Meanwhile  the  Duke  has  told  me  that  I  might  be  allowed 
to  write  to  you ;  and  I  only  wish  that  I  had  anything  to  say 
likely  to  interest  you.  At  this  moment  of  writing,  a  yellow 
fog  enwraps  London,  and  my  library  table  being  close  to  a 
large  window,  looking  out  on  the  Green  Park,  I  am  just  able 
to  write  without  candles,  while  the  depth  of  the  room  is  as 
dark  as  night. 

Piccadilly  is  entirely  invisible,  but  the  outlines  of  the  skele- 
ton trees  in  the  park,  close  to  the  windows,  look  weird  and 
ghostly.  I  am  perpetually  shocking  people  by  saying  that  I 
am  very  fond  of  the  fog,  which  is  quite  true.  There  is  some- 
thing to  me  excessively  enlivening  about  it;  but  I  can't 
explain  the  paradox.  It  is  picturesque,  poetic,  Ossianic. 

I  suppose  that  you  are  looking  forward  with  great  interest  to 
the  coming  session  of  Parliament.  It  seems  to  me  one  of  the 
most  important  in  recent  English  history.  The  tranquillity 
with  which  the  immense  revolution  has,  thus  far,  been  accom- 
plished by  the  disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church,  makes 
me  hope  the  best  for  the  great  measures  which  are  to  complete 
that  revolution. 

Certainly  it  is  very  long  since  an  administration  was  so 
powerful  and  enjoyed  so  much  confidence  at  home  or  abroad 
as  Mr.  Gladstone's  Government.  And  I  am  convinced  that 
the  great  cause  of  this,  apart  from  the  genius  and  eloquence 
of  its  chief  and  the  great  ability  of  his  colleagues,  is  the 


1870.]  DISESTABLISHMENT  IN  IRELAND.  317 

conviction  that  the  Government  is  determined  to  do  justice 
everywhere,  and  that  therefore  the  country  is  safe  in  its  hands. 
After  all,  the  success  of  Government,  as  the  world  progresses, 
is  more  and  more  seen  to  depend  upon  its  conformity  to  the 
great  elemental  laws,  to  the  simplest  moral  precepts.  In 
short,  Justice,  Truth,  and  Faith  are  immutable,  and  the  ship 
steered  by  that  compass  rarely  gets  among  the  breakers. 
Imagine  that  Ireland  had  been  always  dealt  with,  since  the 
days  of  the  Plantagenets,  in  accordance  with  those  principles. 
Would  there  have  been  an  Irish  question  at  this  moment 
striking  down  to  the  foundations  of  the  empire  ?  Your  great 
minister  has  applied  the  heroic  remedy  with  entire  success  to 
one  abomination. 

An  alien  State  Church  over  a  conquered  country  is  now 
numbered  with  the  dead  iniquities,  and  the  wonder  is  that  it 
should  have  been  left  to  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury to  extirpate  this  wrong. 

And  still  the  Nemesis  remains  but  half  appeased,  and  calls 
for  other  sacrifices,  before  the  confiscations,  and  persecutions, 
and  violations  of  the  holiest  rights,  which  stretch  through 
centuries,  and  of  which  that  Church  was  only  one  of  the  later 
instruments  (for  Ireland  was  comparatively  heretic  in  the 
days  when  England  was  ultramontane),  shall  be  atoned  for. 
Nemesis  is  a  goddess  who  will  not  be  cheated  of  her  sacrifices. 
We  have  found  that  out  on  our  side  of  the  water,  Heaven 
knows  !  and  I  pray  and  I  believe  that  your  sacrifices  may  be 
neither  as  costly  in  blood  or  in  treasure  as  ours  have  been  to 
atone  for  the  slavery  iniquity. 

And  certainly  no  English  Government  was  ever  more 
earnestly  inspired  with  the  determination  to  do  justice  and  to 
conform  to  the  elemental  law  than  the  present  Government 
seems  to  be,  in  regard  to  Ireland,  and  I  hope  in  all  things. 

I  have  scribbled  on  most  unconsciously.  My  wife  and 
daughters  join  me  in  most  sincere  regards  and  heartfelt  con- 
gratulations on  your  recovery, 

And  I  am, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


318  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  IX. 

From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

April  3rd,  1870. 

I  went  to  the  Club  last  Saturday,  and  met  some  of  the 
friends  you  always  like  to  hear  of.  I  sat  by  the  side  of 
Emerson,  who  always  charms  me  with  his  delicious  voice,  his 
fine  sense  and  wit,  and  the  delicate  way  he  steps  about  the 
words  of  his  vocabulary ;  if  you  have  seen  a  cat  picking  her 
footsteps  in  wet  weather,  you  have  seen  the  picture  of  Emer- 
son's exquisite  intelligence  feeling  for  its  phrase  or  epithet ; 
sometimes  I  think  of  an  anteater  singling  out  his  insects,  as 
I  see  him  looking  about,  and  at  last  seizing  his  noun  or 
adjective,  the  best,  the  only  one  which  would  serve  the  need 
of  his  thought.  .  .  . 

I  hope  Longfellow  will  find  some  pleasant  literary  labour 
for  his  later  years,  for  his  graceful  and  lovely  nature  can 
hardly  find  expression  in  any  form  without  giving  pleasure  to 
others,  and  for  him  to  be  idle  is,  I  fear,  to  be  the  prey  of  sad 
memories. 


(    319    ) 


CHAPTEE  X. 

HOLLAND,  VARZIN,  ETC. 

Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes— His  son  Edward's  marriage — Engagement  of  Miss 
Mary  Motley  to  Mr.  Sheridan — Contemplated  journey  to  Holland  and  resump- 
tion of  literary  work — Recall  from  his  mission  to  England — Letter  to  Dr. 
O.  W.  Holmes  on  his  daughter's  engagement — Dislike  of  letter-writing — 
Letter  to  Lady  W.  Eussell — Congratulations  on  promotion  of  Mr.  Odo  Russell 
— Excursion  with  the  Queen  of  Holland  to  Haarlem — Brederode  Castle — 
Work  on  the  life  of  John  van  Olden  Barneveld — European  politics— Gift  to 
Mrs:  Motley  from  English  ladies — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Arthur  Russell — Visit  to 
Dresden — Prague— M.  and  Madame  de  Seebach — The  Holbein  controversy 
— Baron  Stockhausen — Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — His  domestic  affairs — 
Articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly — Mr.  Motley's  house  at  the  Hague — John 
van  Olden  Barneveld — A  Court  ball — Leeuwarden — Market  day — Groningen 
— Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Engagement  of  his  son  Wendell — Affection 
between  Russia  and  America — 300th  anniversary  of  the  capture  of  Brill — 
Popularity  of  Mr.  Motley's  works  in  Holland — 'The  Poet  at  the  Break- 
fast Table ' — Death  of  Princess  Henry — Letter  from  Prince  Bismarck — Invi- 
tation to  Varzin — Visit  to  Varzin — Prince  Bismarck's  home"  and  daily^life — 
His  reminiscences  of  the  Austrian  war — His  interviews  with  Thiers  and  Jules 
Favre — His  silver  wedding — The  Varzin  and  Lauenburg  estates — Berlin — 
Dinner  with  Mr.  Bancroft— Thale— Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes—"  Unde- 
signed coincidences  " — "  Table  talk  " — Plans  for  the  winter — Bismarck's 
achievements — United  Germany — Letter  to  Archbishop  Trench,  thanking 
him  for  his  work  on  the  Thirty  Years'  War — Visit  of  the  Queen  of  the 
Netherlands  to  Frampton  Court — Mr.  Simmer — Prospects  of  General  Grant's 
election. 

To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Frampton  Court,  Dorsetshire,1 
December  27th,  1870. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — Let  me  offer  you  our  congratulations 
on  the  approaching  marriage  of  your  son  Edward.  We  heard 
of  it  recently  and  in  a  roundabout  way.  I  trust  sincerely 
that  it  pgives  you  all  pleasure,  and  that  the  young  people 
will  be  as  happy  as  every  one  belonging  to  you  deserves 
to  be.  There  is  an  impending  marriage  in  our  family  like- 

1  In  November,  1870,  Mr.  Motley  was  recalled  from  the  Mission  to  England  : 
Holmes's  Memoir,  p.  155. 


320  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

wise.  Mary  became,  on  a  recent  visit  at  the  country  place 
from  which  I  am  now  writing,  rather  suddenly  engaged  to 
Algernon  Sheridan,  second  son  of  Mr.  Brinsley  Sheridan 
(grandson  of  the  famous  Sheridan,  and  present  head  of  the 
family).  Algernon  is  an  excellent  young  fellow,  full  of 
spirit  and  energy — of  a  happy  temperament  and  unexcep- 
tionable character.  All  the  members  and  branches  of  the 
family  have  taken  a  great  affection  for  Mary,  and  as  we  have 
been  intimate  with  them  for  many  years  it  is  not  as  if  she 
were  going  among  strangers.  Still  it  is  a  sad  drawback  that 
she  must  be  separated  for  life  from  us  and  from  her  country. 
We  leave  soon  after  the  marriage,  which  will  take  place  on 
the  18th  of  January,  for  Holland.  We  shall  pass  a  few  months 
there,  and  I  shall  try  once  more  to  get  up  historical  steam. 
I  fear  I  am  too  old  for  it,  however.  It  is  no  joke  to  map  out 
work  for  half  a  dozen  years  or  more  at  our  age.  Still  life  is 
work  or  it  is  nothing.  And  it  matters  but  little  whether  a 
particular  job  gets  itself  done  or  not  before  the  workman  is 
discharged. 

We  are  not  going  to  live  in  a  royal  palace  at  the  Hague,  as 
I  read  in  the  American  newspapers.  The  Queen,  with  whom 
I  have  the  honour  of  being  acquainted  for  so  many  years,  has 
placed  a  small  house,  which  belongs  to  her,  and  happens  just 
now  to  be  vacant,  at  my  disposition.  I  am  truly  glad  to 
accept  the  kind  offer,  as  furnished  houses  are  very  difficult  to 
obtain  at  the  Hague.  I  wish  I  could  repay  you  for  your 
delightful  letters  by  something  better  than  all  this  egotistical 
trash.  But  you  must  forgive  me  if  recent  events  have  so  dis- 
gusted me  with  political  affairs  that  I  do  not  like  to  go  into 
them.  I  truly  believe  that  I  found  myself  exactly  at  the 
moment  when  I  was  expelled  from  my  post  in  a  position  in 
which  I  could  do  much  good.  I  thought  myself  entirely  in 
the  confidence  and  the  friendship  of  the  leading  personages 
in  England.  And  I  know  that  I  could  have  done  as  well 
as  any  man  to  avert  war  or  even  animosity  between  two  great 
nations,  and  at  the  same  time  guard  the  honour  and  interests 
of  our  nation.  Farewell,  write  to  me  soon  if  you  are  to  send 
an  occasional  message  to  one  who  now  plunges  into  obscurity 
for  ever  and  without  personal  regret. 


1871.]  DISLIKE   TO  LETTER   WRITING.  321 

My  wife  and  daughters  join  in  affectionate  remembrances 
and  kind  wishes  for  the  New  Year  to  you  and  yours,  and 
I  am 

Always  your  sincere  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Kleine  Loo,  the  Hague, 
April  8th,  1871. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — My  wife  joins  me  in  kindest  congratu- 
lations to  you  all.1  Turner  Sargent  cannot  say  more  than  the 
facts  accurately  warrant  when  he  speaks  to  you  of  her  sincere 
regard  for  him.  She  does  not  write  to  him  or  to  you,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  she  never  writes  to  any  person  whatever, 
neither  to  her  sister  nor  to  her  children  nor  to  her  oldest 
friends.  She  has  taken  up  this  position  for  good  and  all,  and 
is  ready  to  brave  the  consequences.  Therefore  I  beg  you  to 
explain  this,  otherwise  it  might  seem  like  a  want  of  feeling  on 
her  part.  This  disgust  for  the  inkstand  is  creeping  over  me 
likewise — I  never  write  a  letter  if  I  can  help  it,  and  I  look 
upon  you  as  a  supernatural  being  for  being  willing  to  write  to 
me  so  often  when  I  am  growing  almost  powerless  to  reply. 
Pray  continue  your  highly  appreciated  correspondence  with 
one  who  is  always  grateful,  and  proves  it  by  silence.  Events 
at  home  fill  me  with  disgust  unfathomable.  I  am  now  amusing 
myself  with  the  intrigues  and  the  hatreds  and  personal  and 
political  jealousies  and  lyings  and  backbitings  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  in  the  dusty  archives  here,  as  a  relief  to  the 
same  sort  of  commodities  in  the  nineteenth.  Renewing  the 
expression  of  warm  felicitation  to  your  daughter  and  your 
wife  and  all  your  household  on  this  interesting  occasion,  and 
with  the  kind  remembrances  of  all,  I  am 

Always  most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 

1  Dr.  Holmes's  daughter  was  just  engaged. 


VOL.  II. 


322  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

To  Lady  William  Russell. 

6,  Kneuterdyk,  the  Hague, 
July  13th,  1871. 

DEAR  LADY  WILLIAM, — This  is  not  a  letter.  For  the  time 
being,  at  least,  I  am  past  letter- writing.  I  can't  tell  how  it 
is,  but  the  degout  de  Tenerier  has  become  a  disease  with  me. 
It  seems  such  a  poor  substitute  for  living  communication,  that 
instead  of  knocking  at  your  well-known  and  much-beloved 
door — or  rather  ringing  the  bell,  for  the  knocker  is  silenced — 
ushered  by  your  benignant  chamberlain  into  the  presence,  I 
can  only  sit  down  at  my  own  table  and  hold  conversation  with 
an  idiotic  inkstand.  But  I  wished  to  send  you  my  small  and 
insignificant,  but  very  sincere,  congratulations  on  your  son's 
advancement,  which  I  am  sure  must  give  you  great  pleasure, 
and  which  seems  to  meet  with  the  general  approval.  Odo  has 
worked  so  long  and  steadily,  and  effectively,  in  important 
service,  which  really  was  that  of  chief  of  a  first-class  mission, 
that  everybody  looks  upon  it  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  he 
should  all  at  once  find  himself  at  the  top  of  the  ladder  :  Palmam 
qui  mermtferat. 

Certainly,  he  is  now  at  the  head  of  your  diplomatic  corps, 
for  what  embassy  can  be  compared  in  importance  to  that  sent 
to  the  Kaiser  Konig  ?  Pray  give  him  my  felicitations,  if  he 
remembers  so  obsolete  and  effete  an  individual  as  myself.  I 
should  like  to  know  how  you  are  in  health.  We  rarely  hear 
from  London.  My  daughter,  who  is  almost  our  only  corre- 
spondent, seldom  leaves  Dorsetshire,  where,  by  the  way,  she 
describes  the  summer  as  pitiless  in  its  severity,  as  it  certainly 
is  here.  We  have  had  nothing  but  howling  winds,  black 
skies,  and  pouring  rain,  ever  since  that  vile  impostor  June 
showed  her  ugly  face,  and  pretended  not  to  be  December.  I 
sincerely  trust  that  your  health  has  not  suffered  from  the 
rigour  of  the  season.  I  have  nothing  especial  to  tell.  We 
see,  as  usual,  much  of  the  Queen,  and  like  her  more  and  more. 
Her  kindness  is  inexhaustible,  and  the  constant  communica- 
tion with  so  brilliant  and  cultivated  a  woman  is  certainly  a 
great  privilege  and  pleasure.  Yesterday  we  made  a  long 
excursion  with  her,  going  to  Haarlem  by  rail,  being  met  there 


1871.]  LIFE  AT  THE   HAGUE.  323 

by  M.  and  Madame  Boreel  van  Hoogeland,  in  their  carriage, 
and  taken  to  see  the  picturesque  ruins  of  Brederode  Castle, 
built  nine  hundred  years  ago  by  one  of  the  hard  fighting, 
hard  drinking,  most  obstreperous  sovereign  counts  of  Holland, 
and  subsequently  inhabited  by  truculent  bishops  and  turbulent 
"  Beggars  "  of  the  sixteenth  century,  till  it  tumbled  to  pieces 
a  few  hundred  years  ago.  Thence  we  went  to  a  charming 
country  place  of  the  Boreels,  called  Waterland,  a  very  Dutch 
designation,  to  dine,  and  returned  to  the  Hague  before  mid- 
night. Would  that  you  could  have  been  of  our  little  party, 
to  add  to  it  the  charm  of  your  wisdom  and  your  wit !  I  live 
much  among  the  dead  men,  and  have  been  solacing  myself 
for  several  months  in  reading  a  considerable  correspondence 
of  John  van  Olden  Barneveld,  who  had  the  ill  luck  to  be 
decapitated,  as  you  remember,  two  centuries  and  a  half  ago. 
If  they  had  cut  his  head  off  on  account  of  his  abominable 
handwriting,  no  creature  would  have  murmured  at  the  decree 
who  ever  tried  to  read  his  infinite  mass  of  manuscripts.  I 
take  some  credit  to  myself  for  having,  after  much  time  and 
trouble,  enabled  myself  to  decipher  |;he  jnost  of  them.  It  is 
a  system  of  hieroglyphics  such  I  have  not  before  encountered, 
and  I  have  had  some  experience  in  the  cacography  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  I  wish  that  I  could  find 
something  more  amusing  to  talk  about  than  myself,  but  the 
Hague  is  so  retired  a  place  at  this  season,  that  it  gives  one  few 
topics.  When  the  weather  is  good,  or  rather  should  it  ever 
become  tolerable,  the  daily  after-dinner  drive  to  Schevening, 
and  the  walk  on  the  terrace  or  beach,  is  a  resource.  Likewise 
one  goes  to  the  same  spot  before  breakfast,  and  immerses 
oneself  in  the  briny  deep.  This  is  a  life  of  no  great  variety, 
to  be  sure,  and  is  somewhat  less  whirling  and  vertiginous 
than  a  London  season.  I  have  lost  interest  for  the  present  in 
politics.  The  great  game  has  been  played,  and  a  cosmos  is 
slowly  coming  out  of  the  European  chaos.  One  doesn't  see 
how  any  great  war  can  occur  again,  until  the  Eastern  tussle 
comes.  Was  there  ever  anything  funnier  than  the  pronun- 
ciamiento  of  poor  little  Chambord,  with  his  drapeau  Wane? 
The  two  Misses  Forbes,  whom  you  are  acquainted  with,  are 

Y  2 


324  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

come  here  for  a  few  days,  and  will  stay  with  us  after  stopping 
a  couple  of  days  with  the  Bunsens.  They  report  your  relative 
and  our  old  acquaintance,  Mr.  Forbes,  ancient  Minister  at  the 
vanished  Court  of  Saxony,  as  living  contentedly  and  com- 
fortably at  Geneva.  There  is  to  be  a  marriage  here  next  week 
of  the  only  daughter  of  Prince  Frederick  of  the  Netherlands, 
with  the  mediatised  Prince  Zuwied.  My  wife  had  the  great 
pleasure  a  few  weeks  after  our  arrival  in  the  Hague  to  receive 
a  charming  present  from  a  number  of  the  ladies  of  England, 
accompanied  by  a  most  touching  and  gratifying  letter, 
written,  in  behalf  of  all  the  subscribers  to  the  present,  by 
Lady  Stanhope  and  Lady  Louisa  Egerton.  The  gift  was  a 
beautiful  parure  of  pearls  and  diamonds ;  and  the  letter  accom- 
panying it  was  as  charming  as  the  present  itself.  I  can't  tell 
you  how  much  pleasure  this  incident  gave  her,  and  me  as 
well.  It  was  most  gratifying  to  know  that  we  were  not  entirely 
forgotten  in  a  land  which  we  love  so  much.  We  have  had 
but  few  English  visitors  at  the  Hague  since  we  have  been  here. 
The  Stirling-Maxwells  were  here  for  a  couple  of  days,  and  the 
Skelmersdales  made  the  Queen  a  brief  visit.  There  are  some 
Austrians  coming  for  the  bathing  season,  so  the  Queen  informs 
me. 

Always  your  most  affectionate 

VARIUS. 


To  Lady  William  Russell. 

6,  Kneuterdyk,  the  Hague, 
August  29th,  1871. 

DEAKEST  LADY  WILLIAM, — Your  letter  of  23rd  of  August 
duly  reached  me,  and  I  was  very  grateful  for  it,  as  I  always 
am  whenever  you  are  so  good  as  to  remember  your  faithful  and 
devoted  Varius.  Your  second  letter  of  Sunday  the  27th  has 
just  arrived,  but  I  am  sure  you  have  by  this  time  ceased  to 
be  angry  with  me  for  not  writing  before.  Mrs.  Arthur,  who 
duly  received  your  letters  to  her  or  her  husband,  tells  me  that 
she  wrote  to  you  the  day  before  yesterday.  You  will  know 
therefore  already  why  I  could  not  write.  So  long  as  the  little 


1871.]  LIFE  AT  THE  HAGUE.  325 

boy  was  ill,1  I  did  not  like  to  distress  you  with  unnecessary 
anxiety,  for  I  felt  that  it  was  a  sickness  which  would  soon 
pass  away.  He  seems  now  perfectly  well.  I  have  this  instant 
left  his  nursery,  where  he  is  as  merry  as  a  grig,  whatever  a 
grig  may  be ;  he  desired  me  to  inform  his  dear  grandmamma 
that  he  had  been  ill,  but  was  now  very  well.  He  is  certainly 
a  most  charming  little  fellow,  and  both  my  daughters  have  a 
passionate  malheureuse  for  him,  alas,  never  to  be  requited. 
We  are  all  in  love  with  him,  and  are  in  despair  at  the  idea  of 
his  taking  his  departure.  The  doctor  has  not  yet  allowed  him 
to  go  out,  but  he  puts  on  his  hat  and  great-coat,  and  has  his 
windows  open.  The  weather  is  so  fine  and  warm  to-day,  that 
if  I  had  been  the  medicus,  I  should  have  turned  him  out  of 
doors  for  an  hour.  The  little  girl  is  as  bouncing  as  a  ball 
and  red  as  a  rose.  She  is  in  perfect  health  and  spirits.  We 
have  gained  by  their  loss,  for  we  have  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  a  great  deal  more  of  Arthur  and  his  wife  than  we  other- 
wise should  have  done.  We  have  had  many  Austrians  here 
of  late — several  of  our  old  acquaintances,  the  Karolyis,  who 
are  to  be  Odo's  colleagues  at  Berlin — his  wife2  is  the  charming 
Fanny  Erdody,  as  agreeable  and  unspoiled  by  flattery  as  she 
is  beautiful ;  the  Countess  Clam-Gallas,  the  Princess  Lori 
-Schwarzenberg,  well  known  to  you,  and  others,  as  representa- 
tives of  the  Kaiserstadt.  Most  of  these  have  now  departed. 
There  remains  Princess  Dietrichstein,  widow  of  poor  Count 
Mensdorff,  who  died  the  other  day,  to  the  profound  regret  of 
all  who  knew  him,  one  of  the  most  sympathetic  and  attractive 
of  men.  He  was  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  during  part  of 
my  time  in  Vienna.  Charles  Villiers  has  just  been  in  here 
since  I  began  to  write.  He  is  a  fellow-boarder  with  your  son 
and  daughter  at  the  Huis  Ten  Bosch,  having  arrived  yester- 
day. Her  Majesty  is  as  agreeable  and  gracious  as  ever;  but 
you  will  have  more  information  of  her  than  I  can  give  just 
now  from  your  progeny.  She  is  to  leave  for  Switzerland  about 
the  middle  of  next  month.  Mr.  Villiers  does  not  give  a  very 

1  A  son  of  Lord  Arthur  Russell,  who  Mr.  Motley  the  meaning  of  the  Dutch 
was  taken  ill  during  a  visit  witli  his  word  "moo*"  (beautiful).    "Do  you  ask 
parents  to  Holland.  because  it  is  what  you  always  hear  as 

2  Countess  Karolyi  one  day  asked  soon  as  you  go  out  ? "  was  the  reply. 


326  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

brilliant  account  of  the  condition  of  the  Liberal  party.  But 
I  know  nought  of  such  matters,  having  eschewed  all  present 
politics,  and  buried  myself  up  to  the  ears  in  the  seventeenth 
century  by  way  of  a  change.  De  Witt's  ghost  has  not  yet  rapped 
at  any  of  our  doors.  The  poor  man  was  torn  into  so  many 
pieces  by  the  vulgar  'and  idiotic  rabble  who  murdered  him, 
that  it  must  be  difficult  for  him  to  put  himself  together  in  any 
manner  becoming  a  respectable  revenant  in  his  own  house. 
This  note  is  hardly  worth  sending,  save  that  it  will  give  you 
a  very  accurate  and  conscientious  bulletin  of  that  portion  of 
your  family,  small  and  great,  now  in  the  Low  Countries.  The 
four  are  so  entirely  well  as  to  be  almost  a  matter  of  regret  to 
our  four,  fearing  that  they  will  soon  be  flitting,  and  we  left 
blooming  alone.  I  must  close  at  once  or  this  letter  will  miss 
the  post.  Pardon  my  abrupt  close,  and  with  kindest  remem- 
brances of  my  wife  and  daughters,  believe  me, 

Always  most  affectionately  and  devotedly, 

YARIUS, 


To  his  Wife. 

Hotel  Bellevue,  Dresden, 
September  30th,  1871. 

MY  DEAEEST  MARY, — We  have  been  here  since  Wednesday 
night.  The  house  is  an  excellent  one — on  the  river,  in  the 
Theatre  Platz.  But  [an  open  space  enclosed  with  board 
railings  represents  the  pretty  theatre  which  was  so  familiar 
to  us.  It  was  burned  a  few  years  ago,  and  a  temporary 
wooden  structure  round  the  corner  accommodates  (and  must 
do  so  for  some  years)  Lthe  theatre-loving  Dresdeners.  We 
went  there  night  before  last,  walking  home  sedately  after 
nine  o'clock,  after  seeing  a  very  well  acted  little  comedy  and 
a  dismal  comic  opera.  At  the  table  d'hote  we  met  John 
Bigelow,  who  seems  to  be  cheerfully  touring  with  his  eldest 
daughter,  a  nice  girl.  They  went  to  Prague  yesterday,  but 
are  coming  back  Monday.  The  table  d'hote  is  too  early — half- 
past  four — besides  being  a  bore  ;  so  to  avoid  falling  helplessly 
into  table  dotage,  we  have  resolved  to  dine  in  our  salon 
at  seven — unless  we  go  to  the  play,  which  begins  at  half- 


1871.]  DRESDEN.  327 

past  six.  Yesterday  forenoon  we  went  to  the  old  Dippol- 
deswalder  House.  We  went  through  all  the  rooms — the 
salon  with  its  pretty  balcony  looking  into  the  garden,  our 
room,  Mary's  room  adjoining,  where  she  always  requested 
me  to  "  leave  the  door  a  little  open  "  ;  Susie's  room,  with  the 
"  little  bedstead  "  ;  and  the  library  room,  which  used  to  look 
all  over  the  Saxon  Switzerland,  and  now  only  beholds  a 
row  of  semi-detached  houses,  as  a  whole  new  quarter  has 
grown  up  where  used  to  be  open  fields.  I  did  not  observe 
that  any  marble  tablet  had  been  let  into  the  wall  with  a 
Latin  inscription,  setting  forth  that  here  the  '  Dutch  Kepublic  ' 
was  written  at  an  early  period  in  this  century.  Unaccountable 
neglect ! 

It  made  one  feel  very  old  and  very  sad  and  very  much 
like  a  dismal  old  ghost  to  go  squeaking  and  gibbering  about 
the  places  where  two  tranquil  and  happy  years  were  passed  so 
long  ago.  But  I  should  have  been  less  cut  up  if  you  had 
been  with  us. 

Yesterday  we  met  at  the  Gallery  M.  and  Mdme.  de  Seebach, 
who  fell  into  conversation  with  us.  Don't  you  remember 
meeting  her  once  at  some  party  in  Dresden  ages  ago  ?  She  is 
a  daughter  of  Nesselrode ;  and  he  (Baron  Seebach)  has  been 
Saxon  Minister  in  Paris  for  the  last  twenty  years.  They  were 
very  friendly  and  complimentary ;  she  said  her  father  was  one 
of  my  constant  readers.  There  was  a  married  daughter  with 
them,  who  was  very  friendly  with  Lily,  and  said  she  had  often 
heard  of  her. 

M.  de  Seebach  tried  to  find  M.  Griiner,  Director  of  the 
Gallery,  to  introduce  to  us.  But  he  was  out  at  the  time. 

I  wish  very  much  to  hear  him  talk  about  the  great  Holbein 
controversy.  I  told  you,  I  think,  in  a  previous  letter  that  the 
opinion  was  prevalent  that  the  great  Dresden  Madonna,  called 
the  *  Madonna  of  Burgomeister  Mayer,'  which  you  remember 
so  well,  is  a  copy. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  the  fact,  although  to  my  shame  I 
confess  my  ignorance  of  it  until  now,  that  another  existed  in 
Darmstadt,  belonging  to  a  Princess  of  Hesse.  There  is  now  an 
exhibition  here  of  the  works  of  Holbein,  as  many  as  could  be 
got  together.  It  has  been  preparing  for  several  years,  and 


328  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

but  for  the  war  would  have  taken  place  last  year.  The  chief 
object  in  making  the  collection  was  to  bring  the  two  Madonnas 
side  by  side  and  let  them  grapple. 

Well,  here  they  hang,  cheek  by  jowl  at  last,  and  I  grieve  to 
confess  myself  a  good  deal  staggered.  Having  no  pretension 
to  connoisseurship,  and  therefore  no  reputation  to  lose,  I  will 
avow  that  the  Darmstadt  one  looks  like  the  original,  and  the 
Dresden  one  like  a  very  careful  and  successful  copy,  done, 
perhaps,  a  generation  or  so  after  Holbein's  death. 

Of  course  every  Saxon,  from  the  King  on  his  throne  down 
to  the  humblest  Sesseltrdger  in  his  canary  coat,  would  rise  up 
in  wrath  at  such  blasphemy. 

The  object  of  the  exhibition  is  for  the  connoisseurs  to 
decide  which  of  the  two  pictures — conceding  that  both  are 
by  Holbein — is  the  more  masterly  one. 

The  controversy  has  been  going  on,  as  I  said,  for  years, 
and  the  literature  is  enormous,  as  might  be  supposed  among 
such  conscientious  and  inexhaustible  and  indefatigable  critics 
as  the  Germans.  They  have  been  boring  on  and  into  the 
subject  as  if  they  were  making  a  tunnel  through  Mont  Cenis. 
But  I  will  bore  you  no  longer ;  but  when  I  find  out  what 
M.  Griiner's  opinion  is  and  the  rest  of  the  swells,  I  shall  at 
once  abandon  my  ground,  and  adopt  their  ideas  and  make 
them  violently  and  unblushingly  my  own. 

Lily  is  very  well  for  her,  and  we  get  on  very  harmoniously. 
I  have  not  been  very  fractious,  and  I  think  I  feel  the  effect  of 
getting  my  head  above  water.  I  am  less  lethargic  and  a 
little  less  gloomy,  and  certainly  am  not  so  easily  fatigued  as 
at  the  Hague.  I  trust  soon  to  hear  from  you. 

Ever  your  loving 

J.  L.  M.  • 


To  his  Wife. 

Hotel  Bellevue,  Dresden, 
October  2nd,  1871. 

MY  DEAKEST  MARY, — I  want  to  take  another  look  at  Prague 
(for  literary  purposes).  I  shall  regret  it,  if  being  so  near  I 
neglect  the  opportunity. 

We  shall  have  had  enough  of  Dresden.    The  air  is  certa  inly 


1871.]  DRESDEN.  329 

more  stimulating  than  at  the  Hague,  and  the  treasures  are 
wonderful.  But  the  place  has  rather  a  deadly  lively  aspect. 
And  yet  there  is  a  new  quarter  extending  from  the  Dippoldis- 
walder  Street  towards  the  south-east,  covering  a  large  space 
which  were  open  fields  in  our  time,  and  on  which  a  large  crop 
of  flourishing  streets  and  squares  has  sprung  up,  many  of 
them  extremely  handsome.  Also  there  are  a  great  many 
attractive  houses  standing  in  gardens.  There  are  hundreds 
of  Americans,  I  am  told,  resident  here,  and,  I  suppose,  a 
corresponding  number  of  English. 

We  had  the  pleasure  of  finding  out  the  Stockhausens.1 
They  were  out  when  we  called,  but  they  came  over  the  same 
evening — I  mean  he  and  his  daughter  Julia.  The  other 
daughter  is  married  and  lives  in  Gratz,  but  as  her  husband  is 
a  great  composer  they  are  going  to  remove  to  Leipzig. 
Stockhausen  looks  much  as  usual,  and  was  very  affectionate. 
He  lives  only  in  his  souvenirs,  he  says.  We  are  going  to 
a  family  dinner  with  them  to-morrow.  To-day  we  do  the  same 
with  the  Charles  Nortons. 

Julia  Stockhausen  has  been  here  an  hour  this  morning. 
She  is  very  bright  and  intelligent  as  usual,  but  hates  the 
world,  and  they  live  in  great  retirement. 

Poor  M.  Thies  died  here  about  a  month  ago,  after  a  pro- 
tracted illness.  His  widow  is  still  here,  and  we  shall  call  on 
her,  but  hardly  expect  to  see  her.  Professor  Griiner,  Director 
of  the  Engraving  Cabinet,  has  just  called  on  us  and  invited 
us  to  see  the  collection,  although  it  is.  shut  for  the  present  to 
the  public  on  account  of  cleaning.  Likewise  we  have  agreed 
to  go  at  this  instant  almost  to  another  great  collection  belong- 
ing to  the  late  King  or  his  heirs.  Therefore  reluctantly  I 
must  stop,  but  will  write  again  to-morrow.  Of  course  I  don't 
call  this  a  letter ;  but  you  will  pardon  it,  as  literally  it  will 
not  catch  the  post  unless  despatched  instantly,  so  that  there 
are  two  imperious  reasons  for  brevity. 

Ever  your  loving  and  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 

1  Baron  StockLausen,  formerly  Hanoverian  Minister  to  Austria,  a  valued 
colleague. 


330  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

To  Us  Wife. 

HOtel  Bellevue,  Dresden, 
October  3rd,  1871. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — I  have  not  much  to  say ;  we  go  to  the 
Gallery  every  day.  Sunday  we  went  to  High  Mass  at  the 
Cathedral  Church  and  heard  the  fine  music. 

Lady  Eastlake  is  staying  in  the  house,  and  came  to  see  us 
yesterday  afternoon.  Yesterday  we  dined  with  the  Nortons. 
We  had  a  pleasant  dinner,  sesthetic,  artistic,  literary,  and 
critical.  They  spend  the  winter  here  and  return  to  America 
next  year. 

I  wish  I  knew  what  our  old  lodgings  in  the  Dippoldiswalder 
cost  now,  but  Lily  forgot  to  ask  Eichler.  Of  course  I 
didn't  remember  to  do  so,  but  the  prices  seemed  to  have 
trebled.  The  population  has  increased  50  per  cent.  I  don't 
know  whence  is  all  the  influx.  I  shall  say  no  more  on  the 
great  Holbein  question,  except  that,  as  I  expected  to  be,  I  am 
staggered,  after  talking  with  Professor  Hiibner,  Director  of  the 
Gallery,  and  Professor  Griiner.  They  and  all  the  Dresden  con- 
noisseurs, and  some  of  the  Berlin  ones,  denounce  bitterly  the 
conspiracy  to  degrade  the  Dresden  Madonna  into  a  copy,  and 
maintain  that  only  the  artist  himself  would  have  been  capable 
of  making  the  changes  and  improvements  which  it  shows  over 
the  original  one,  which  they  admit  the  Darmstadt  one  to  be. 
They  say,  however,  that  this  latter  has  so  suffered  from  bad 
varnish  and  much  repainting  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  how 
much  of  the  original  Holbein  is  left. 

Your  loving  and  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

G,  Kneuterdyk,  the  Hague, 
January  22nd,  1872. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES, — I  will  not  let  the  first  month  of  the 
year  go  by  without  sending  to  you  and  yours  our  best  and 
kindest  wishes  for  the  remaining  eleven  and  for  many  years 
after  it.  You  are  certainly  the  very  best  correspondent.  You 


1872.]  OLIVER  WENDELL   HOLMES.  331 

are  also  my  only  one.  I  do  not  deserve  that  you  should 
write  to  me  so  often,  except  that  no  one  could  more  highly 
appreciate  your  letters  or  be  more  sincerely  grateful  for  them. 
You  need  not,  however,  express  so  much  anxiety  that  what 
news  you  write  may  have  already  been  furnished  by  others. 
I  scarcely  ever  write  to  any  one.  Of  course,  therefore,  as 
there  could  hardly  be  found  a  second  friend  so  kind  and  mag- 
nanimous as  yourself,  I  rarely  receive  letters.  From  you  I 
am  debtor  for  two  letters  in  the  last  six  months,  one  dated 
1st  July,  1871,  and  the  other  December  22nd.  It  was  delight- 
ful to  hear  so  many  details  of  your  own  surroundings  and  of 
Boston  doings  and  sayings.  Your  house  must  be  a  most 
agreeable  residence.  I  always  envied  those  who  looked  out 
from  their  snugly  warmed  libraries  of  a  winter's  day  upon  that 
wide  estuary  and  picturesque  environs  which  you  paint  so 
well  in  your  letter,  and  which  have  always  much  impressed  me 
when  I  was  last  at  home.  I  am  glad  that  you  continue  to 
take  such  pleasure  in  your  daughter's  and  your  son's  marriage. 

A could  not  but  be  happy  with  so  excellent  a  husband 

and  so  agreeable  a  companion.  I  am  sorry  that  my  wife 
should  have  come  so  near  seeing  them  when  in  England  last 
fall  and  yet  miss  them.  For  myself  I  was  not  there.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  weeks'  tour  in  Germany  at  about  that 
season  to  patch  up  my  health,  which  is  somewhat  broken,  I 
have  not  budged  from  the  Hague  since  I  came  here  a  year 
ago,  after  being  bowled  out  in  so  brutal  a  manner  from  a  place 
where  I  did  my  duty  as  faithfully  as  man  ever  did. 

I  wish  that  you  would  tell  me  what  your  series  of  papers  in 
the  Atlantic  is  about.  I  have  written  to  have  the  magazine, 
which  somehow  or  another  has  stopped  for  nearly  a  year,  so 
that  I  shall  soon  find  out  for  myself.  To  give  you  a  picture 
of  my  whereabouts  in  exchange  for  yours.  We  are  living  in 
a  house  which  I  hired  last  May  for  a  year,  which  is  placed  in 
the  best  and  most  agreeable  part  of  this  rather  picturesque 
and  peculiar  little  city.  It  is  a  square,  commodious,  brick 
mansion,  and  looks  something  like  the  rather  old-fashioned- 
looking  houses  one  used  to  see  in  Boston  or  Salem,  with  a 
large  garden  and  the  air  of  unmitigated  respectability.  It 


332  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

looks  modern  enough,  and  the  proprietor  has  a  considerable 
collection  of  admirable  pictures,  which  embellish  the  rooms 
and  make  the  house  very  home-like.  Modern  as  it  looks,  it 
was  once  the  residence  of  Frank  van  Borselen,  the  last  husband 
and  consoler  of  the  unhappy  Jacqueline  of  Bavaria.  Subse- 
quently it  belonged  for  a  time  to  Count  Hohenlo,  who  figured 
much  in  the  war  of  the  Eepublic  for  independence  against 
Spain,  and  who  married  one  of  the  daughters  of  William  the 
Silent.  Last,  not  least,  it  was  the  residence  of  John  de  Witt, 
who  walked  out  through  the  garden  just  two  centuries  ago 
towards  the  prison,  a  stone's-throw  from  here,  to  speak  with 
his  brother  Cornelius,  who  was  locked  in  it,  and  whence  they 
were  both  dragged  and  torn  to  pieces  by  the  rabble  on  the 
square  which  is  before  my  eyes.  Looking  up  the  street, 
instead  of  down,  I  see  the  house,  not  very  much  altered,  of  the 
great  John  van  Olden  Barneveld ;  and  not  very  far  off  is  the 
courtyard  of  the  castle  where  he  was  beheaded.  As  I  am 
engaged  in  getting  up  a  history  of  this  statesman  and  of  his 
tragic  ending  from  many  documents  in  the  Archives  never 
published,  it  is  not  a  disadvantage  to  find  oneself  on  the  spot. 
I  am  afraid  that  I  write  history  now  rather  from  the  bad  habit 
of  years,  and  because  one  must  have  a  file  to  gnaw  at,  than 
from  any  hope  of  doing  much  good.  The  desire  to  attempt 
the  justification  of  the  eminent  and  most  fearfully  injured 
Barneveld  inspires  me,  but  I  cannot  help  thinking,  so  far  as 
my  own  small  personality  is  concerned,  that  the  public  has 
had  enough  of  me,  and  will  hardly  absorb  another  book  of 
mine.  Moreover,  I  have  at  last  the  consciousness  of  being 
doubled  up.  I  have  suddenly  fallen  into  old  age  as  into  a 
pit.  And  I  hate  it.  I  try  to  imagine  that  it  has  much  to  do 
with  the  climate  and  the  marshy  exhalations  of  a  soil  below 
the  level  of  the  sea,  this  sudden  failing  of  intellectual  and 
bodily  vigour,  languor,  lassitude,  moorditch  melancholy. 
The  place  is  in  itself  agreeable.  We  have  many  pleasant 
friends  and  acquaintances.  People  have  been  very  polite  and 
hospitable.  Of  all  who  live  here,  I  should  be  ungrateful  if 
I  did  not  mention  first  and  foremost  the  Queen.  I  have  rarely 
known  a  more  intellectual  or  accomplished  lady  or  a  sincerer 


1872.]  A  COURT  BALL.  333 

friend.  Nothing  could  be  kinder  or  more  constant  than  her 
attentions  to  us.  We  see  her  every  few  days,  either  at  her 
own  palace  or  at  our  house.  She  is  coming  to  pass  this 
evening  with  us  quite  alone,  and  I  wish  you  were  to  be  of 
the  party,  and  delight  her  with  your  wit  and  wisdom,  for  she 
would  be  sure  to  appreciate  and  enjoy  your  society. 

Then  we  have  a  series  of  balls  at  the  Court,  which  are 
gay,  brilliant,  and  not  over-crowded,  and  which  my  youngest 
daughter  Susie,  who  is  in  the  midst  of  her  dancing  days 
enjoys  highly.  At  last  Wednesday's  ball,  the  King  selected 
her  for  his  partner  in  the  cotillon,  which  lasted  two  hours 
(it  is  called  in  Boston,  I  believe,  the  German),  and  was  as 
merry  as  a  marriage  bell.  These  fantastic  revels,  which  last 
till  four  or  five  in  the  morning,  and  recur  very  often,  are  better 
for  youth  "  with  nimble  soles,"  as  Komeo  says,  than  for  their 
elders.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  my  wife's  health  is  anything 
but  good.  She  is  a  martyr  to  chronic  dyspepsia,  and  it  would 
make  you  sad  to  see  your  old  friend,  she  has  grown  so  thin 
and  slight.  Still  the  doctors  insist  that  there  is  nothing 
organically  wrong,  and  that  she  may  entirely  recover  her  health 
and  be  herself  again.  I  have  only  left  myself  room  to  send 
her  and  all  our  warmest  remembrances  to  you  and  yours,  and 
to  assure  you  of  the  constant  friendship  of 

Yours  sincerely, 

J.  L.  M. 

p.g. — Pray  continue  your  most  Christian  practice  of  writing 
as  much  as  possible. 


To  his  Wife. 

Arnheim, 
Sunday,  May  5th,  1872. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, — I  have  only  a  minute  before  breakfast 
to  write  a  single  line  to  say  that  we  have  returned  from  our 
brief  pilgrimage  to  the  north. 

I  wrote  you  Thursday  from  Leeuwarden,  directed  to  "  Hotel 


334  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

d'Orient."  The  next  day  was  market  day  in  that  pretty  little 
capital  of  Friesland,  and  it  certainly  was  a  very  picturesque 
and  agreeable  spectacle.  The  whole  town,  that  is  to  say  the 
principal  squares  and  streets,  were  covered  with  booths  and 
extemporised  little  shops,  and  there  was  everything  to  buy 
and  sell,  from  a  paper  of  pins  to  Frisian  cows  and  pigs 
and  funny  antediluvian  carts  and  carriages.  The  effect  of 
thousands  of  women  all  dressed  like  helmed  cherubim,  with 
their  gold  or  silver  head-pieces  glittering  in  a  very  bright 
sun,  was  most  effulgent.  I  must  retract  what  I  said  in  my 
other  letter  about  their  faces.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
female  type  in  this  province  is  much  superior  to  the  rest  of 
the  country.  There  were  many  young  faces  with  very 
delicate  features  and  thin,  well-cut  noses,  like  yours,  though 
not  quite  so  perfect.  The  head-gear  is  most  trying,  as  not  a 
hair  is  visible ;  the  forehead  is  made  unnaturally  high,  and 
the  sun  glares  pitilessly  upon  their  above-mentioned  noses. 

We  did  a  vast  amount  of  shopping,  in  a  small  way,  among 
the  national  jewellers.  At  three  in  the  afternoon  we  took  the 
rail  (two  hours)  to  Groningen — perambulated  the  place  in  a 
carriage,  and  afterwards  on  foot.  The  town  is  a  meek,  modern, 
regular-looking  place  enough,  which  might  be  Salem  or 
Newburyport,  or  any  other  respectable  one-horse  New  England 
city,  but  for  a  very  beautiful  church-tower  in  the  principal 
square,  which  is  of  stone,  and  exactly  like  the  style  of  archi- 
tecture called  Early  English  in  England.  We  passed  the 
night  there,  and  next  morning  at  eight  left  for  this  place — a 
comfortable  enough  but  boring  journey  of  seven  hours.  The 
weather,  which  had  been  cloudless,  broke  Friday  night,  and  it 
rained  hard  until  we  reached  Arnheim.  Then  it  cleared 
enough  for  us  to  take  the  same  drive  that  Lily  and  I  took 
last  fall,  to  see  the  Pallandt  Keppel  place  of  Eosendail,  which 
is  pretty  enough. 

If  the  weather  is  pleasant,  we  shall  probably  go  to  Alkmaar 
(three  hours)  from  Amsterdam  Monday  morning,  and  get  home 
from  there  by  late  dinner  time. 

I  find  at  this  place  a  letter  of  invitation  from  the  committee 
of  arrangements  for  unveiling  the  monument  at  Heiligorlee, 


1872.]  DR.   O.   W.   HOLMES'S  JPOEMS.  335 

a  famous  early  battle-field  which  you  will  find  described  in 
the  D.  K. 

Most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

6,  Kneuterdyk,  the  Hague, 
May  7th,  1872. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — I  am  quite  shocked  that  your  kind  and 
interesting  letter  of  10th  March  should  have  waited  so  long 
for  a  reply;  the  more  inexcusable  such  a  delay  on  my  part 
because  you  then  gave  me  the  news  of  your  son  and  my  young 
friend  Wendell's  engagement  to  Miss  Dixwell. 

I  thank  you  very  much  for  writing  to  me  on  the  occasion, 
and  for  the  confidence  you  show  that  anything  that  touches 
you  deeply  is  sure  to  interest  me.  Pray  give  him  my  earnest 
congratulations  and  kindest  wishes  for  his  happiness,  in  which 
my  wife,  although  absent  from  home  at  this  moment,  most 
heartily  joins,  I  know.  Although  I  have  not  the  pleasure  of 
knowing  the  young  lady,  I  have  always  known  and  highly 
respected  that  distinguished  scholar  her  father,  and  much 
value  the  fine  old  Commonwealthian  stock  from  which  they 
descended.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  will  have  much  pleasure 
in  thus  filling  your  pleasant  new  house  again  with  this  young 
menage  to  replace  those  who  have  emigrated  from  your  walls 
and  established  themselves  so  prosperously  on  their  own 
account. 

Many  thanks  for  your  two  poems  of  welcome  to  the  Kussian 
prince.  You  are  facile  princeps,  not  only  in  your  own  country, 
but  anywhere,  in  the  art  of  throwing  off  these  flashing,  spark- 
ling jets  d'esprit,  and  the  fountain  seems  perennial.  The 
nation  ought  at  least  to  furnish  you  with  a  yearly  butt  of 
sack.  Whenever  there  is  a  call  for  a  national  outpouring,  off 
everybody  goes,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  tap  you,  and  always 
you  bubble  fresher  and  fresher.  It  makes  me  feel  more  like 
a  Silurian  fossil  than  ever  when  I  read  of  these  balls  to  your 
Grand  Duke,  to  remember  that  I  have  danced  at  balls  at  his 


336  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

grandfather's  court,  when  his  father  and  mother,  then  the 
Cesarewitch  and  wife,  eldest  son  of  Czar  Nicholas  the  gigantic, 
were  hardly  out  of  their  honeymoon.  I  do  not  know  that  I 
appreciate  very  highly  that  affection  which  is  supposed  to 
exist  between  Kussia  and  America.  At  any  rate,  it  is  a  very 
platonic  attachment.  Being  founded,  however,  on  entire 
incompatibility  of  character,  absence  of  sympathy,  and  a 
plentiful  lack  of  any  common  interest,  it  may  prove  a  very 
enduring  passion. 

I  meant  to  answer  your  letter  before,  but  I  have  been  absent 
from  home  a  little  time,  making  a  tour  in  the  northern  pro- 
vinces, Friesland  and  Groningen.  I  put  your  letter  in  my 
travelling  portfolio,  hoping  to  find  a  spare  hour  or  two  on  the 
way,  but  brought  it  back  last  night  unanswered.  By  the  way, 
I  suspect  that  your  Netherland  ancestors  came  from  Friesland. 
At  least  a  Frisian  acquaintance  of  mine,  a  distinguished 
painter  to  whom  I  have  been  sitting  (not  for  myself),  informs 
me  that  he  has  known  the  name  of  Wendell  in  his  province. 
If  so,  you  are  maternally  almost  as  much  Anglo-Saxon  as 
fraternally — for  the  Frisians  are  the  nearest  blood  relations  of 
the  Angles,  and,  indeed,  a  thousand  years  ago  spoke  the  same 
language  and  understood  each  other.  I  had  a  few  weeks  ago 
occasion  to  be  present  at  an  interesting  ceremonial.  On  the 
1st  April  was  celebrated  the  300th  anniversary  of  the  capture 
of  the  Brill,  a  small  place  of  no  historical  importance  now, 
but  interesting  as  the  cradle  of  Netherland  independence.  If 
you  care  anything  for  the  subject,  you  can  find  its  capture 
described  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  second  volume  of  my  first 
historical  work. 

I  will  not  describe  the  celebration  farther  than  to  say  I 
never  witnessed  more  genuine  enthusiasm.  The  little  quaint 
antique  town  was  covered  all  over  with  flowers  and  wreaths 
and  flags,  and  overflowing  with  excitement.  I  went  from 
Eotterdam  to  the  place,  which  is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Meuse, 
with  the  King  in  his  yacht.  His  Majesty  was  to  lay  the 
foundation  stone  of  a  sailors'  hospital,  to  be  raised  on  the  spot 
in  commemoration  of  the  event.  He  was  received  with  im- 
mense sympathy,  for  the  hold  of  the  House  of  Orange  on 


1872.]  'THE  POET  AT  THE  BKEAKFAST   TABLE.'  337 

the  popular  heart  is  very  great,  and  with  the  best  of  reasons. 
We  had  cantatas  and  orations  in  the  open  air,  and  then  we 
had  a  great  banquet  in  the  town-house,  with  no  end  of  toasts 
and  patriotic  speeches.  The  King,  who  is  a  manly,  good- 
hearted,  soldier-like  man,  spoke  several  times  very  well,  so 
did  burgomasters  and  ministers  of  state  and  professors ;  and 
your  humble  servant  likewise  was  toasted,  and  informed  that 
the  University  of  Leyden  had  requested  him  to  accept  their 
degree  of  LL.D.  honoris  causa,  and  he  made  a  speech  in  his 
vernacular,  which  was  highly  applauded, ;  etc.,  etc.  There 
were  no  reporters  at  the  dinner,  owing  to  some  misunderstand- 
ing with  the  press,  therefore  I  cannot  send  you  any  printed 
account  of  these  doings,  and  all  our  speeches  have  exhaled 
with  the  champagne  which  gave  them  birth.  So  much  the 
better.  "  Therefore  exhale,"  says  Ancient  Pistol.  Pardon 
my  little  egotisms. 

I  like  to  tell  so  old  and  indulgent  a  friend  as  you  that  my 
efforts  to  illustrate  the  very  heroic  history  of  this  country  have 
been  appreciated  here,  and  that  the  books  in  the  translation 
have  gone  through  many  editions.  They  are  used  in  the  higher 
schools  also.  I  should  have  been  sorry  not  to  be  known  in  the 
country  to  whose  past  I  have  devoted  so  much  of  my  life. 
But  we  have  been  most  warmly  welcomed  from  highest  to 
lowest,  and  I  feel  very  grateful.  I  will  say  no  more,  and  I 
blush  to  have  said  so  much. 

I  read  your  new  *  Breakfast  Table  '  with  infinite  delight.  It 
is  the  next  best  thing  to  talking  to  you.  Perhaps  my  affection 
for  the  writer  blinds  me  (although  I  think  not),  but  I  cannot 
see  that  the  new  papers  are  not  as  fresh,  fanciful,  witty,  philo- 
sophical as  the  first  ones,  and  higher  praise  it  would  be  difficult 
to  give.  I  expect  to  finish  a  volume  this  summer.  But  where 
or  when  I  shall  publish  I  hardly  know.  I  continue  to  write 
from  vicious  habit,  but  have  lost  all  interest  in  publication. 
How  is  Lowell?  What  is  his  brilliant  genius  at  work  upon 
at  this  moment  ?  Give  my  love  to  him  when"  you  see  him. 
Alas !  alas  !  when  shall  I  see  you  all  ?  I  was  grieved  to  hear 

what  you  say  of  W A 's  eyes.  They  never  looked 

but  with  kindness  on  me  and  mine,  and  I  am  shocked  that  a 

VOL.  n.  z 


338  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

film  should  come  over  either  of  them.     I  sincerely  hope  that 
the  evil  is  not  without  remedy. 

I  must  bring  this  rigmarole  to  a  close.  Pray  write  to  me 
soon  again.  Your  letters  are  most  interesting  to  me,  and  do 
me  good.  Love  to  your  wife,  and  believe  me 

Always  most  sincerely  your  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

Hague, 
May  9th,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — The  Queen  wrote  to  me  immediately 
after  my  return,  saying  "  that  although  very  sad  for  her  poor 
sister's  death,  she  longed  to  see  me."  She  seemed  sad  and 
lonely,  but  very  affectionate.  I  was  with  her  for  an  hour  yester- 
day afternoon.  She  said  the  death  of  Princess  Henry  was 
unexpected — she  regrets  her  much.  The  Prince  of  Orange  is 
about  the  same.  She  does  not  think  that  anything  serious 
affects  his  health,  although  every  one  says  that  he  is  looking 
very  ill. 

We  dined  last  evening  at  Clingendaal ;  Lady  Milbanke  and 
her  daughter  are  staying  there,  but  are  likely  to  be  gone 
before  your  return.  They  are  setting  forth  for  Switzerland 
next  week.  It  was  a  merry  young  party — Mde.  de  Pallandt 
and  her  husband,  and  some  of  the  usual  beaux,  Lynden, 
Schuylenberg,  Clifford,  with  a  small  addition  in  the  evening, 
Harrises  and  others.  I  hope  you  will  stay  away  as  long  as  it 
amuses  you  and  does  you  good.  I  don't  dare  to  think  of  how 
well  you  have  been,  by  Lily's  account.  I  won't  say  how 
much  I  miss  and  long  for  you  both,  because  I  don't  wish  to 
hurry  you  one  moment. 

Love  to  Lily.     God  bless  you,  dearest ! 

Your  ever  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


1872.]  INVITATION  TO  VAEZIN.  339 

From  Prince  Bismarck.  Varzin, 

July  6th,  1872. 

MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  was  the  more  agreeably  surprised  in 
seeing  your  handwriting,  as  I  guessed  before  opening  the 
letter  that  it  would  contain  the  promise  of  a  visit  here.  You 
are  thousand  times  welcome,  and  doubly  if  accompanied  by 
your  ladies,  who,  I  am  sure,  never  have  seen  a  Pomeranian  on 
his  native  soil.  We  live  here  somewhat  behind  the  woods, 
but  Berlin  once  reached  the  journey  is  not  a  difficult  one. 
The  best  train  leaves  Berlin  in  the  morning  between  eight 
and  nine  o'clock — I  believe  8 . 45,  Stettiner  Banhoff,  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes  to  drive  from  any  hotel  about  the  Linden. 
You  go  by  railway  as  far  as  Schlawe,  where  you  arrive  at 
about  four  o'clock  afternoon,  and  from  where  a  trumpet-sound- 
ing postilion  brings  you  to  Yarzin  just  in  time  for  the  dinner- 
bell,  before  six  o'clock.  If  you  will  have  the  goodness  to  send 
me  a  telegram  on  your  departure  from  Berlin,  or  the  evening 
before,  I  shall  make  everything  ready  for  you  at  Schlawe,  so 
that  you  only  have  to  step  from  the  waggon  to  the  wagen. 
The  Pomeranian  gods  will  be  gracious  enough  for  me  to  give 
you  a  sunny  day,  and  in  that  case  I  should  order  an  open 
carriage,  and  one  for  luggage.  Only  let  me  know  by  the 
telegram  your  will  about  this  and  about  the  number  of  in-  or 
outside  places  wanted. 

My  wife  is  still  at  Loden.  I  expect  her  to  be  back  on  the 
9th  inst.,  but  la  donna  e  mobile !  At  all  events,  she  will  not 
be  detained  by  female  frailty  beyond  the  end  of  the  week. 
She  will  be  equally  glad  to  see  you  again;  your  name  is 
familiar  to  her  lips,  and  never  came  forth  without  a  friendly 
smile.  The  first  day  that  you  can  dispose  of,  at  all  events,  is 
the  best  one  to  come  to  see  us,  though  we  think  to  remain 
here  until  the  end  of  summer.  You  do  not  mention  that 
Mrs.  Motley  will  accompany  you,  and  by  this  silence  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  she  will,  as  Mann  und  Weib  sind  ein  Leib.  We 
will  be  happy  to  see  her  with  you,  and  en  attendant  give  my 
most  sincere  regards  to  her  and  to  Mrs.  Ives. 

Most  faithfully  your  old  friend, 

V.  BISMARCK. 
z  2 


340  MOTLEY'S  LETTE11S.  [CHAP.  X. 

To  Ms  Wife.  Varzin, 

July  25th,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST"  MAKY, — I  had  better  write  a  line  to  tell  you 
that  we  have  arrived  in  safety,  although  I  fear  that  I  shall 
hardly  be  able  to  say  much  just  now,  as  I  wish  to  go  down- 
stairs to  the  breakfast  room.  Lily  told  you  all  there  was 
to  say  of  Berlin.  We  had  a  pleasant  half-hour  with  the 
Bancrofts,  who  were  very  cordial,  and  we  promised  to  go  and 
see  them  on  our  return.  We  left  Berlin  at  a  quarter  to  nine 
yesterday  morning ;  reached  Schlawe  station  at  half-past  four. 

We  had  an  hour  and  a  half's  drive  from  the  station  to  Yarzin. 
As  the  postilion  sounded  his  trumpet  and  we  drove  up  to 

the  door,  Bismarck,  his  wife,  M ,  and  H ,  all  came  out 

to  the  carriage  and  welcomed  us  in  the  most  affectionate 
manner.  I  found  him  very  little  changed  in  appearance  since 
'64,  which  surprises  me.  He  is  somewhat  stouter,  and  his 
face  more  weather-beaten,  but  as  expressive  and  powerful  as 
ever.  Madame  de  Bismarck  is  but  little  altered  in  the 
fourteen  years  that  have  passed  since  I  saw  her.  They  are 
both  most  kind  and  agreeable  to  Lily,  and  she  feels  already 

as  if  she  had  known  them  all  her  life.     M is  a  pretty 

girl,  with  beautiful  dark  hair  and  grey  eyes — simple,  un- 
affected, and,  like  both  father  and  mother,  full  of  fun.  The 
manner  of  living  is  most  unsophisticated,  as  you  will  think 
when  I  tell  you  that  we  were  marched  straight  from  the 
carriage  into  the  dining-room  (after  a  dusty,  hot  journey  by 
rail  and  carriage  of  ten  hours),  and  made  to  sit  down  and  go 
on  with  the  dinner,  which  was  about  half  through,  as,  owing 
to  a  contretemps,  we  did  not  arrive  until  an  hour  after  we  were 
expected.  After  dinner  Bismarck  and  I  had  a  long  walk  in 
the  woods,  he  talking  all  the  time  in  the  simplest  and 
funniest  and  most  interesting  manner  about  all  sorts  of  things 
that  had  happened  in  these  tremendous  years,  but  talking  of 
them  exactly  as  every-day  people  talk  of  every-day  matters — 
without  any  affectation.  The  truth  is,  he  is  so  entirely  simple, 
so  full  of  laissez-aller,  that  one  is  obliged  to  be  saying  to  one's 
self  all  the  time,  This  is  the  great  Bismarck — the  greatest 
living  man,  and  one  of  the  greatest  historical  characters  that 


1872.]  PRINCE  BISMARCK.  311 

ever  lived.  When  one  lives  familiarly  with  Brobdignags  it 
seems  for  the  moment  that  everybody  was  a  Brobdignag  too, 
that  it  is  the  regular  thing  to  be ;  one  forgets  for  the  moment 
one's  own  comparatively  diminutive  stature.  There  are  a 
great  many  men  in  certain  villages  that  we  have  known  who 
cast  a  far  more  chilling  shade  over  those  about  them  than 
Bismarck  does. 

In  the  evening  we  sat  about  most  promiscuously — some 
drinking  tea,  some  beer,  some  seltzer  water  ;  Bismarck  smok- 
ing a  pipe.  He  smokes  very  little  now,  and  only  light 
tobacco  in  a  pipe.  When  I  last  knew  him,  he  never  stopped 
smoking  the  strongest  cigars.  Now  he  tells  me  he  couldn't 
to  save  his  life  smoke  a  single  cigar.  He  has  a  disgust  for 
them.  A  gentleman  named  Von  Thadden  and  his  wife  are 
the  only  guests,  and  they  go  this  afternoon — a  Pomeranian 
friend.  He  made  the  campaign  of  Koniggratz,  and  Bismarck 
was  telling  innumerable  anecdotes  about  that  great  battle,  and 
subsequently  gave  some  most  curious  and  interesting  details 
about  the  negotiations  of  Nikolsburg.  I  wish  that  you  could 
have  heard  him.  You  know  his  way.  He  is  the  least  of  a 
poseur  of  any  man  I  ever  saw,  little  or  big.  Everything 
comes  out  so  offhand  and  carelessly ;  but  I  wish  there  could 
be  an  invisible,  self-registering  Boswell  always  attached  to  his 
button-hole,  so  that  his  talk  could  be  perpetuated.  There 
were  a  good  many  things  said  by  him  about  the  Nikolsburg 
Conference  confirming  what  I  had  always  understood. 

The  military  opinion  was  bent  on  going  to  Vienna  after 
Sadowa.  Bismarck  strongly  opposed  this  idea.  He  said  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  not  to  humiliate  Austria,  to  do 
nothing  that  would  make  friendly  relations  with  her  in  the 
future  impossible.  He  said  many  people  refused  to  speak  to 
him.  The  events  have  entirely  justified  Bismarck's  course,  as 
all  now  agree.  It  would  have  been  easy  enough  to  go  to 
Vienna  or  to  Hungary,  but  to  return  would  have  been  full  of 
danger.  I  asked  him  if  he  was  good  friends  with  the  Emperor 
of  Austria  now.  He  said  Yes,  that  the  Emperor  was  ex- 
ceedingly civil  to  him  last  year  at  Salzburg,  and  crossed  the 
room  to  speak  to  him  as  soon  as  he  appeared  at  the  door.  He 


342  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X. 

said  he  used  when  younger  to  think  himself  a  clever  fellow 
enough,  but  now  he  was  convinced  that  nobody  had  any  control 
over  events — that  nobody  was  really  powerful  or  great,  and  it 
made  him  laugh  when  he  heard  himself  complimented  as  wise, 
foreseeing,  and  exercising  great  influence  over  the  world.  A 
man  in  the  situation  in  which  he  had  been  placed  was 
obliged,  while  outsiders  for  example  were  speculating  whether 
to-morrow  it  would  be  rain  or  sunshine,  to  decide  promptly, 
it  will  rain,  or  it  will  be  fine,  and  to  act  accordingly  with  all 
the  forces  at  his  command.  If  he  guessed  right,  all  the  world 
said,  What  sagacity — what  prophetic  power !  if  wrong,  all  the 
old  women  would  have  beaten  me  with  broomsticks. 

If  he  had  learned  nothing  else,  he  said  he  had  learned 
modesty.  Certainly  a  more  unaffected  mortal  never  breathed, 
nor  a  more  genial  one.  He  looks  like  a  Colossus,  but  his 
health  is  somewhat  shattered.  He  can  never  sleep  until  four 
or  five  in  the  morning.  Of  course  work  follows  him  here,  but 
as  far  as  I  have  yet  seen  it  seems  to  trouble  him  but  little. 
He  looks  like  a  country  gentleman  entirely  at  leisure. 

The  woods  and  park  about  the  house  are  fine,  but  unkempt 
and  rough,  unlike  an  English  country  place.  We  have  had, 
since  I  began  to  write,  long  walks  and  talks  in  the  woods — 
an  agreeable  family  dinner — and  then  a  long  drive  through 
the  vast  woods  of  beeches  and  oaks  of  which  the  domain  is 
mostly  composed.  I  don't  intend  to  Boswellise  Bismarck  any 
more.  It  makes  me  feel  as  if  I  were  a  New  York  Herald  inter- 
viewing reporter.  He  talks  away  right  and  left'  about  any- 
thing and  everything — says  among  other  things  that  nothing- 
could  be  a  greater  letise  than  for  Germany  to  attack  any 
foreign  country — that  if  Kussia  were  to  offer  the  Baltic 
provinces  as  a  gift,  he  would  not  accept  them.  As  to  Holland, 
it  would  be  mere  insanity  to  pretend  to  occupy  or  invade  its 
independence.  It  had  never  occurred  to  him  or  to  anybody.  As 
to  Belgium,  France  would  have  made  any  terms  at  any  time 
with  Germany  if  allowed  to  take  Belgium.  I  wish  I  could  record 
the  description  he  gave  of  his  interviews  with  Jules  Favre  and 
afterwards  with  Thiers  and  Favre,  when  the  peace  was  made. 

One  trait  I  mustn't  forget,  however.    Favre  cried  a  little,  or 


1872.]  VISIT  TO  VAEZIN.  343 

affected  to  cry,  and  was  very  pathetic  and  heroic.  Bismarck 
said  that  he  must  not  harangue  him  as  if  he  were  an  As- 
sembly ;  they  were  two  together  on  business  purposes,  and  he 
was  perfectly  hardened  against  eloquence  of  any  kind.  Favre 
begged  him  not  to  mention  that  he  had  been  so  weak  as  to 
weep,  and  Bismarck  was  much  diverted  at  finding  in  the 
printed  account  afterwards  published  by  Favre  that  he  made 
a  great  parade  of  the  tears  he  had  shed. 

I  must  break  off  in  order  to  commit  this  letter  to  the  bag. 
Of  course  I  don't  yet  know  how  long  we  shall  stay  here ;  I 
suppose  a  day  or  two  longer.  I  will  send  you  a  telegram 
about  a  change  of  address,  so  don't  be  frightened  at  getting 
one.  Ever  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 

To  Us  Wife. 

Varzin, 
July  21th,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST  MAEY, — I  sent  a  telegram  this  morning  to 
ask  you  to  let  me  have  a  line  at  Berlin,  where  we  shall  stop  a 
couple  of  days,  in  spite  of  the  probable  heat,  in  obedience  to 
your  orders  with  regard  to  a  tailor.  On  the  day  we  arrived,  I 
ordered  a  few  things,  which  I  daresay  will  be  as  hideous  as 
anything  else  I  get,  although  made  by  the  smartest  Schneider 
in  Berlin.  We  shall  leave  day  after  to-morrow  morning,  and 
sleep  that  night  at  the  "  Hotel  du  Nord."  We  have  been  having 
a  most  delightful  visit,  quite  as  agreeable  as  we  expected,  and 
that  is  saying  a  great  deal.  It  has  done  me  much  good  to  be 
with  Bismarck,  so  familiarly  and  pleasantly  all  this  time.  We 
have  had  long,  long  talks  about  the  great  events  in  which  he 
has  been  the  principal  actor,  and  he  goes  on  always  so  entirely 
sans  gene,  and  with  so  much  frankness  and  simplicity,  that  it 
is  a  delight  to  listen.  How  I  wish  you  could  be  listening  to 
him  too !  I  find  him  little  changed  or  aged,  but  his  nervous 
system  is  a  good  deal  shattered,  and  he  suffers  much  from 
insomnia.  She  looks  very  much  as  she  did,  but  is  a  good  deal 
of  an  invalid ;  and  when  I  tell  you  that  she  is  by  nature  as 
anxious  a  person  as  you  are,  and  was  always  in  a  state  of  alarm 


344  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  X. 

if  the  slightest  illness  occurred  to  her  husband  or  any  of  the 
children,  you  may  imagine  what  she  must  have  endured  in 
all  these  campaigns.  To-morrow  is  their  silver  (twenty-five 
years)  wedding.  His  brother  and  wife  and  son  have  just 
arrived,  and  another  old  friend,  a  certain  Pomeranian  squire, 
M.  von  Blankenburg.  I  thought  that  perhaps  we  might  be 
de  trop,  as  they  had  taken  particular  pains  to  let  the  public 
know  nothing  of  the  occasion,  but  he  wished  much  that  we 
should  stay  over  the  day. 

The  house  is  not  large — a  very  moderate  sort  of  chateau,  but 
the  woods  and  walks  and  drives  are  very  pleasant,  and  there  is 
room  I  believe  for  the  company,  although  I  don't  feel  very  com- 
fortable at  occupying  the  best  rooms  in  the  house,  when  so  many 
others  are  here.  I  don't  mean  this  to  be  a  descriptive  letter 
from  "  Your  own  correspondent,"  and  so  I  will  not  put  down 
any  more  of  his  talk,  which,  when'noted  down,  loses  most  of  its 
point,  as  a  matter  of  course.  We  have  just  returned  from  a 
two  hours'  drive  through  the  woods.  We  breakfast  at  any 
hour,  dine  generally  at  about  half-past  three,  he  not  being 
allowed  to  dine  late,  and  after  dinner  we  make  these  sylvan 
excursions,  and  go  to  bed  after  a  scrambling,  promiscuous 
supper  about  twelve. 

We  have  promised  to  dine  with  Bancroft.1  He  sent  me  a 
letter  here  asking  me  to  name  a  day,  and  I  sent  him  a  telegram 
this  morning  fixing  Tuesday.  The  next  day  we  expect  to  go 
as  far  as  Brunswick,  andithen  to  make  a  three  or  four  days* 
excursion  in  the  Harz.  This  is  about  the  extent  of  our  am- 
bition, and  I  have  no  doubt  that  when  we  get  away  from 
here,  we  shall  begin  to  be  very  homesick. 

The  weather  is  very  fine  and  cloudless,  without  being  exces- 
sively hot.  The  atmosphere  is  pure  and  invigorating,  the 
country  being  covered  with  pine  forests,  so  that  one  might 
imagine  one's  self  in  New  Hampshire. 

God  bless  you,  dear,  and  with  love  to  Susie, 

Ever  your  loving 

J.  L.  M. 

My  most  devoted  remembrances  to  H.M.  the  Queen. 

1  George  Bancroft  the  historian,  Minister  of  the  United  States  to  Germany. 


1872.]  PKINCE   BISMAKCK'S   SILVER  WEDDING.  345 

To  his  Youngest  Daughter. 

Varzin, 
July  30th,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST  SUSIE, — It  is  an  infinite  pleasure  to  listen 
to  Bismarck's  conversation,  to  hear  the  history  of  Europe 
during  the  last  most  eventful  half-dozen  years  told  in  such  an 
easy-going,  offhand  way  by  the  man  who  was  the  chief  actor 
and  director  of  that  amazing  history.  Without  giving  you, 
however,  a  cours  d'histoire  contemporaine,  I  could  hardly 

undertake  to  give  you  much  of  his  conversation He 

does  not  dislike  Louis  Napoleon,  and  said  that  he  had  long 
been  of  opinion  that  his  heart  was  much  better  and  his  head 
less  powerful  than  the  world  was  inclined  to  believe. 

The  Silberne  Hochzeit  was  very  interesting.  Letters  and 
telegrams  of  congratulation  kept  coming  in  all  day — from  the 
Emperor  and  Crown  Prince  down  to  students'  clubs  in  all 
parts  of  Germany,  Schutzenvereine, — all  sorts  of  individuals 
and  associations  of  men  and  women.  We  went  to  church  in 
the  morning,  drove  in  the  forest  for  several  hours,  and  dined 
at  six.  There  was  no  company  but  his  brother,  wife,  and  son, 
and  one  other  old  friend,  and  some  of  the  adherents  and 

officials  of  the  household.     In  the  midst  of  the  repast  M 

suddenly  said  to  me,  "  You  must  propose  the  toast  to  papa," 
and  forthwith  she  rapped  on  a  glass,  stopped  the  whole  con- 
versation, and  called  general  attention  to  my  oration.  It  was 
a  masterly  effort  in  the  German  tongue,  lasted  twenty-five 
seconds,  and  ended  with  much  clicking  of  glasses  and  hip,  hip, 
hurraying.  After  dinner  Bismarck  made  some  little  speeches 
to  the  villagers  and  the  musicians.  In  the  evening  a  mighty 
bowl  of  punch  was  brewed,  and  we  smoked  and  made  merry 
until  past  midnight.  I  believe  the  telegrams  of  congra- 
tulation have  been  counted,  and  they  amount  to  about  two 
hundred. 

.  .  .  To-morrow  morning  we  leave  the  house  at  half-past 
eight,  and  arrive  at  Berlin  at  6  P.M.,  having  spent  here  a 
most  delightful  week. 

Ever  your  most  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 


346  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES-.  [CHAP.  X. 


To  Us  Wife. 

Hotel  du  Nord,  Berlin, 

Thursday,  August  1st,  1872. 

MY  DEAKEST  MAKY, — I  feel  as  if  I  had  neglected  you  and 
written  very  few  letters.  But  the  promiscuous  way  in  which 
life  went  on  at  Varzin  made  it  very  difficult  to  get  a  reasonable 
hour  or  two  for  the  purpose  of  writing.  And  I  thought  that 
it  would  be  as  well  to  talk  over  with  you  all  that  we  talked 
about  in  the  woods,  and  at  the  breakfast  and  dinner  table,  or 
on  the  verandah,  as  to  try  to  record  all  the  slip-slop,  decousu, 
but  profoundly  interesting  conversation  which  we  have  been 
so  much  enjoying. 

The  way  of  life  is  very  simple  at  Varzin,  but  the  irregularity 
of  the  hours  is  great.  I  usually  came  downstairs,  as  well  as 

Lily,  between  nine  and  ten ;  Madame  de  Bismarck,  M , 

and  the  sons  came  in  promiscuously  and  had  breakfast  with  us. 
Bismarck  came  down  about  eleven.  His  breakfast  is  very  light 
— an  egg  and  a  cup  of  coffee — and  then  he  has  a  meerschaum 
pipe.  While  he  is  sitting  there  and  talking  to  all  of  us,  his 
secretary  hands  him  the  piles  of  letters  with  which  he  is  goaded 
in  his  retirement,  and  with  a  lead  pencil  about  a  foot  long  makes 
memoranda  as  to  the  answers  and  other  disposition  to  be  made. 
Meanwhile  the  boys  are  playing  billiards  in  another  part  of 
the  same  room,  and  a  big  black  dog,  called  "  Sultan,"  is  ram- 
paging generally  through  the  apartment  and  joining  in  every- 
body's conversation.  I  was  very  sorry  that  Susie  could  not 

have  been  with  us ;  M said  a  great  deal  about  her,  and 

was  extremely  sorry  not  to  see  her ;  and  I  am  sure  Susie  would 
have  liked  her  very  much,  she  is  so  full  of  fun  and  nonsense 
and  good-humour,  and  much  petted  but  not  spoiled.  After 
breakfast  Bismarck  and  I  always  took  a  long  walk,  during 
which  he  was  always  talking — generally  about  the  events  of 
the  French  war.  I  have  given  so  many  specimens  in  my 
letters  to  you  and  Susie  and  Mary  that  it  would  be  foolish 
to  attempt  sending  any  more  small  bricks  as  specimens  of  the 
house.  The  nominal  dinner-hour  was  three,  but  we  rarely 
sat  down  earlier  than  a  quarter  to  four.  No  dinner  dressing 


1872.]  VARZIN  AND  LAUENBURGK  347 

nor  evening  costume.     Dinner  always  good  and  simple ;  wine 
excellent. 

On  the  courtyard  side  the  house  consists  of  a  main  building, 
two  stories  high,  with  two  long  windows  projecting  from  the 
house,  in  which  are  servants'  rooms  and  offices,  making  three 
sides  of  an  open  quadrangle.  On  the  lawn  or  wood  side  there 
is  a  long  verandah  running  in  front  of  the  main  house.  In- 
side is  a  square  hall,  with  wide  staircase  leading  to  a  large  hall 
above,  out  of  which  open  four  spacious  bed-rooms.  On  each 
side  of  the  hall  below  are  a  suite  of  one  or  two  rooms,  which 
are  the  family  and  reception  rooms,  besides  his  library  and 
the  private  rooms  of  the  ladies  of  the  family.  The  estate  is 
about  30,000  morgens,  equal  to  20,000  acres.  A  great  part- 
certainly  two-thirds — is  forest,  pine,  oak  and  beech.  Of  the 
rest,  a  small  farm,  some  200  or  300  acres,  is  in  his  own  hands. 
The  rest  is  let  in  large  farms  of  800  or  900  acres.  The  river 
Wipper,  which  runs  through  the  property,  is  a  valuable  water- 
power.  He  has  built  two  or  three  mills  upon  it,  one  of  wrhich 
is  already  let  and  in  operation.  The  other  and  larger  one  is 
not  yet  finished.  Both  are  pasteboard  mills,  pine-wood  being 
the  raw  material,  which,  of  course,  furnishes  a  great  demand 
from  his  estate. 

The  Lauenburg  property  is  about  of  the  same  dimensions, 
but  much  more  valuable.  This  was  given  to  him  by  the  King 
when  he  made  him  Prince.  Both  his  sons  are  manly,  active, 
well-mannered,  good-looking.  The  intense  affection  which  he 
has  for  his  wife  and  children  is  delightful  to  contemplate, 
and,  as  you  may  imagine,  he  is  absolutely  worshipped  by 
them.  The  week  passed  here  is  something  for  Lily  and  me  to 
remember  for  the  rest  of  our  lives.  The  parting  was  painful 
to  me,  for  heaven  knows  when  I  shall  ever  see  him  again.  He 
sent  most  affectionate  messages  to  you,  and  they  were  all  very 
sorry  you  could  not  come,  and  Susie  also. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  telegraphed  so  soon  for  you  to  write  to 
the  "  Hotel  du  Nord."  Nothing  had  been  said  about  the  limit 
of  our  visit,  but  when  on  Sunday  night  I  spoke  of  ordering 
the  post-chaise  next  .morning  to  take  us  to  the  railway  station, 
Bismarck  remonstrated  so  vehemently  about  it  that  we  were 


348  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  X. 

only  too  glad  to  postpone  our  departure  two  more  days ;  and  I 
think  I  mentioned  to  you  that  Bismarck  telegraphed  to  Ban- 
croft asking  him  to  postpone  his  dinner  for  us  until  Thursday. 
I  never  can  adequately  express  to  you  how  kind  and  affec- 
tionate they  have  all  been  to  us.  She  is  kindness  and  cordiality 
itself,  and  we  have  felt  all  the  time  as  if  we  were  part  of 
the  family.  As  for  Bismarck  himself,  my  impressions  of  his 
bigness  have  increased  rather  than  diminished  by  this  renewed 
intimacy.  Having  been  with  him  constantly  fourteen  or 
fifteen  hours  a  day  for  a  whole  week,  I  have  certainly  had 
opportunity  enough  to  make  up  my  mind.  .  .  . 

Mr.  Bancroft  came  this  morning  and  made  us  a  long  visit. 
He  is  excessively  cordial.  We  dine  with  him  to-day  at  six, 
and  he  has  invited  some  people  to  meet  us. 

Pray  give  my  devoted  and  affectionate  respects  to  the  Queen 
when  you  see  her. 

Love  to  Susie,  who  I  hope  will  not  abuse  my  new  clothes 
got  on  purpose  to  please  her. 

Ever,  dearest,  lovingly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ms  Wife. 

Berlin,  Hotel  du  Nord, 
August  2nd,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — We  had  a  pleasant  dinner  at  Bancroft's 
yesterday.  Mommsen  and  Eanke  were  not  there,  both  being 
in  Munich. 

Bancroft  had  done  his  best  to  make  a  variety,  and  had 
two  "  dips  " — Balen,  now  Minister  of  Germany  in  Brussels, 
and  the  newly  arrived  Spaniard  Escosura.  Then  there  was  a 
distinguished  naturalist,  and  very  agreeable  man,  Helmholz, 
connected  by  marriage  with  the  Mohls,  the  first  painter  of 
Berlin,  Kichter,  and  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  Meyerbeer. 

Then  there  was  a  young  and  most  friendly  man  in  white 
trousers,  whom  I  took  for  a  youth,  but  who  turned  out  to  have 
been  with  me  at  Gottingen — one  of  the  Grimms,  who  has 
written  lives  of  Michael  Ange]o  and  Eaphael ;  an  old  gentle- 
man whose  name  I  did  not  catch,  but  who  was  celebrated  for 


1872.]  VISIT  TO  BERLIN.  349 

something,  I  doubt  not,  made  up  the  party.     To-day  Bancroft 
is  coming  at  two,  and  we  shall  go  to  the  Gallery. 

Meantime,  a  more  pressing  affair  is  my  tailor,  who  has  been 
sending  fashions  to  adorn  my  body  during  the  past  ten  days, 
and  is  coming  presently  to  torture  me  by  trying  them  on. 
Herbert  Bismarck  says  he  is  the  first  tailor  of  Berlin,  but 
"furcliibar  theuer"  the  complaint  which  Toots  made  of  Burgess 
&  Co.  I  have  done  my  best  to  comply  with  Susie's  instruc- 
tions, and  expect  nothing  but  unfriendly  criticism  and  bitter 
irony  in  return.  No  matter,  I  shall  have  an  easy  conscience 
and  tight-fitting  clothes.  I  care  not  for  my  conscience,  and 
wish  that  the  clothes  were  easier. 

To-morrow  morning  we  go  to  Thale,  and  we  expect  to  con- 
tent ourselves  with  mild  excursions  on  comparatively  level 
ground.  As  we  come  nearer  the  scene  of  action,  the  enchant- 
ment of  the  Brocken  seems  to  subside.  It  is  so  easy  not  to  go 
up  the  mountain  and  survey  the  panorama  from  the  summit  at 
sunrise,  that  I  think  we  shall  remain  below.  I  have  '  Faust '  in 
my  bag,  and  can  read  the  '  Walpurgisnacht '  over  again  com- 
fortably in  bed,  which  will  be  much  jollier.  I  don't  see  why 
we  shouldn't  be  back  by  Saturday  at  latest,  and  perhaps  sooner. 
Ever,  dearest,  affectionately  and  lovingly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

6,  Kneuterdyk,  the  Hague, 
August  llih,  1872. 

MY  DEAK  HOLMES, — Yours  of  26th  May  was  duly  received, 
and,  as  usual,  gave  me  much  pleasure.  I  will  try  to  look  up 
some  Dutch  children's  books  and  send  them  by  the  first 
opportunity  if  they  are  worth  sending.  I  have  been  a  good 
deal  in  your  company  of  late,  as  I  am  a  constant  listener  to 
the  '  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table.'  By  the  way,  you  may  be 
amused  by  an  accidental  coincidence  in  an  expression  quoted 
by  you  from  Bancroft,  and  one  in  an  unpublished  chapter  of 
mine.  Let  me  first  put  the  two  side  by  side — I  have  your 
'  Breakfast  Table '  before  me :  "  Setting  himself  up  over  against 


350  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  X. 

the  privileged  classes,  he,  with  a  loftier  pride  than  theirs, 
revealed  the  power  of  a  yet  higher  order  of  nobility,  not  of  a 
registered  ancestry  of  fifteen  generations,  but  one  absolutely 
spotless  in  its  escutcheon,  pre-ordained  in  the  council-chamber 
of  eternity."  In  my  unpublished  work  a  paragraph  runs 
thus:  "Against  the  oligarchy  of  commercial  and  juridical 
corporations  they  stood  the  most  terrible  aristocracy  of  all — 
the  aristocracy  of  God's  elect,  predestined  from  all  time  and 
to  all  eternity  to  take  precedence  and  to  look  down  upon  their 
inferior  and  lost  fellow-creatures."  This  is  not  a  plagiarism, 
for  it  was  written  two  months  before  I  received  the  Atlantic, 
and  I  never  read  the  article  on  Jonathan  Edwards.  But,  of 
course,  every  good-natured  critic  who  happens  to  stumble  on 
the  coincidence  will  enjoy  himself  highly  in  detecting  and 
exposing  the  transparent  petty  larceny.  I  made  a  note  of  the 
two  passages,  and  being  in  Berlin  the  other  day,  read  them  to 
Bancroft  for  the  fun  of  the  thing. 

Your  last '  Table  Talk '  was  especially  interesting  to  me,  as 
it  deals  with  many  subjects  in  a  masterly  way  which  have  been 
occupying  me  a  good  deal  from  time  to  time.  I  am  very  sorry 
that  the  series  will  close  with  the  year.  My  wife's  health  has 
given  me  of  late  a  great  deal  of  anxiety.  She  is  a  little  better, 
I  am  happy  to  say,  to-day,  than  she  has  been  for  three  or  four 
years  past,  and  has  spent  four-and-twenty  hours  almost  without 
pain.  We  are  wavering  about  our  winter.  It  is  plain  she  ought 
to  have  a  change  of  climate,  although  the  especial  malaria  ot 
Holland  does  not  seem  to  affect  her  as  much  as  it  does  many 
others.  We  shall  probably  go  to  Cannes  or  Nice  for  the 
winter — not  that  those  climates  are  especially  good  for  her 
case,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  she  feels  an  inclination  towards 
them,  and,  at  any  rate,  they  are  bright  and  bracing,  and  she 
will  be  able  to  have  a  good  deal  of  air  and  sunlight  and  gentle 
exercise,  which  she  likes,  and  which  are  beneficial  to  her.  We 
had  thought  of  going  home  this  autumn,  but  this  is  for  the 
present  out  of  the  question.  Lily  and  I  have  been  making 
a  few  weeks'  journey  in  North  Germany. 

The  best  holiday  that  I  have  had  for  a  long  time  was  a 
week  which  we  spent  with  Bismarck  at  his  country  seat, 


1872.]  THE   UNITY  OF  GERMANY.  351 

Varzin,   in   Pomerania.     I   daresay  you   remember   that  he 
and  I  were  fellow-students  almost  forty  years  ago,  and  very 
intimate,  and  we  have  always  kept  up  our  intimacy.     I  had 
not  seen  him  since  1864,  when  he  was  in  Vienna  after  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  war.     During  those  eight  years  he  has 
accomplished  what  I  always   dreamed  might  be  done,  but 
after  about  a  century's  work.     It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to 
say  that  he  has  done  a  hundred  years'  hard  work  since  1864. 
A  great,  powerful,  united  Germany  has  been  the  dream  ot 
every  enthusiastic  youth  in  the  Fatherland  for  generation 
after   generation.      The    substitution   of   the   solid,   healthy 
Teutonic  influence  for  the  Latinized  Celtic,  the  control  of 
Central  Europe   by  a   united  nation  of  deep   thinkers  and 
straightforward,  honest  strikers  for  liberty  and  Fatherland, 
instead  of  a  race  who  have  overrun  all  neighbouring  countries 
century  after  century  for  the  sake  of  "  la  gloire"  and  who  avow 
that  their  grandeur  is  necessarily  founded  on  the  weakness, 
distraction,  and  disintegration  of  other  nations,  that  united 
Italy  and  united  Germany  are  insults  and  injuries  to  France, 
only  to  be  wiped  out  by  war, — this  has  been  the  national  aspi- 
ration ever  since  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  when  Germany  was 
cut  up  into  three  hundred  and  seven  pieces.     All  this  has 
been  at  last  accomplished  in  two  blows.     But  what  blows ! 
One  sent  Austria  reeling  out  of  Germany,  to  find  her  centre  of 
gravity  at  Pesth,  having  hitherto  claimed  to  control  Germany. 
The  other  has  smashed  for  ever  the  pretensions  of  France  to 
control  Europe,  and  forbid  the  union  of  homogeneous  peoples 
—the  Teutons  on  one  side  and  the  Italians  on  the  other. 

These  are  not  dynastic  victories,  military  combinations, 
cabinet  triumphs.  They  are  national,  popular,  natural  achieve- 
ments, accomplished  almost  as  if  by  magic  by  the  tremendous 
concentrated  will  of  one  political  giant,  aided  by  a  perfected 
military  science  such  as  I  suppose  the  modern  world  never 
saw  before.  At  least,  I  fancy  that  such  enormous  results  were 
never  before  reached  with  so  little  bloodshed  in  comparison. 
Four  or  five  hundred  thousand  soldiers  taken  in  two  or  three 
nets  and  landed  high  and  dry,  to  be  thrown  all  alive  again 
into  the  sea  of  population  when  the  war  is  over — this  is  supe- 


352  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  X. 

rior  to  butchering  the  same  numbers.  It  is  for  such  conside- 
rations as  these  that  I  have  always  felt  an  intense  sympathy 
with  the  German  movement.  Intellect,  science,  nationality, 
popular  enthusiasm  are  embodied  in  it.  They  must  unques- 
tionably lead  to  liberty  and  a  higher  civilisation.  Yet  many 
people  are  able  to  see  nothing  in  it  but  the  triumph  of  military 
despotism. 


Mr.  Motley  to  Arclibisliop  Trench. 

6,  Kneuterdyk,  The  Hague, 
October  5th,  1872. 

MY  DEAK  LOED, — On  my  return  from  a  journey  in  Germany, 
which  I  recently  made,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  finding  on  my 
table  your  volume  of  lectures  on  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  sent  to  me  by  the  author.  I  hasten  to 
thank  you  very  sincerely  for  your  courtesy,  and  to  assure  you 
that  I  have  read  the  book  carefully  and  with  close  attention, 
and  have  found  much  profit  and  much  pleasure  in  so  doing. 

I  am  struck  with  the  great  amount  of  information  and  of 
philosophy  which  you  have  compressed  into  comparatively  so 
small  a  space. 

Your  appreciation  of  Gustavus  seems  to  me  an  eminently 
just  one,  and  your  pictures  of  Germany,  both  before  and  after 
the  war,  are  very  impressive. 

As  I  am  likely  to  be  occupied  with  the  task,  to  which  you 
are  good  enough  to  allude  in  your  preface,  for  many  years  to 
come,  your  book  will  lie  on  my  table  and  be  often  in  my  hands. 

The  recently  published  books  to  which  you  refer  are  mostly 
in  my  possession.  A  few  of  them,  however,  are  new  to  me,  and 
I  shall  not  fail  to  get  them.  I  have  been  occupied  for  a  year 
past  with  a  preliminary  study  to  the  Thirty  Years,  and  have 
found  a  good  deal  of  new  material  in  the  archives  of  this 
Kingdom  of  Belgium  for  the  epoch  of  Barneveld,  Maurice  of 
Nassau,  the  last  year  of  Henry  IV.,  and  the  quasi  war  in  the 
Duchies  of  Cleves  and  Juliers,  which  was  a  kind  of  dress - 
rehearsal  of  the  awful  tragedy  which  was  to  begin  so  soon 
afterwards. 


1872.J  THE  THIRTY   YEARS'   WAR.  053 

Besides  the  materials  for  the  Thirty  Years'  War  in  the 
various  archives  of  which  you  speak  in  your  preface,  there  is 
much  in  Venice,  in  Brussels,  and  in  this  place ;  and  I  found 
some  years  ago  some  remarkable  documents  in  the  private 
archives  of  eminent  families  in  Rome.  As  to  the  invaluable 
foreign  and  other  correspondence  in  the  Vatican,  I-  fear  it 
will  be  many  long  years  before  the  student  of  history  will  be 
allowed  to  enter  upon  that  golden  harvest. 

But  I  did  not  intend  to  intrude  upon  your  patience  so  long, 
but  only  to  express  my  thanks  for  your  books,  which  I  now  do 
once  more, 

And  am,  my  dear  Lord, 
<  Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

J.  LOTHROP  MOTLEY. 


To  his  Wife. 

The  Hague, 
Sunday,  October  6th,  1872. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  gave  the  Queen  the  message  of  Mrs. 
Sheridan,  having  already  read  her,  at  our  last  dinner  at  the 
House  in  the  Wood,  as  you  know,  Mrs.  Sheridan's  first  letter, 
placing  Frampton  at  her  disposition.  She  expressed  great 
pleasure  on  both  occasions,  and  wished  me  to  convey  her  best 
compliments  and  thanks,  and  acceptance  of  the  invitation.  I 
told  her  that  the  Sheridans  would  like  much  to  know  whom 
her  Majesty  would  like  to  meet,  but  she  only  said  that  she 
should  be  only  too  happy  to  meet  any  of  their  friends.  Thus 
far  neither  you  nor  I  have  made  any  suggestion  to  the  Queen 
or  to  the  Sheridans  from  beginning  to  end.  The  Queen  has 
not  mentioned  any  names  to  me,  and  it  is  obvious  that  she 
quite  prefers^  that  the  Sheridans  should  invite  their  own 
guests.1 

Ever  your  loving 

J.  L.  M. 

1  Mr.  and  Mrs.  ^Sheridan  had  invited  godmother  in  person  to  Mrs.  Algernon 

the  Queen  of  the  Netherlands  to  pay  Sheridan's  second  daughter  Sophie, 
a  visit  to  Frampton  Court  and  stand 

VOL.  II.  2  A 


354  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X, 


To  his  Wife. 

The  Hague, 
Wednesday,  October  IGtfi,  1872. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, — The  Queen  left  the  Bellevue  station 
at  7.15  A.M.,  by  special  train  for  Eotterdam,  yesterday.  I 
went  down  to  see  her  off — the  only  person  in  the  Hague  that 
did  so — getting  up  at  the  unearthly  hour  of  six.  It  blew  an 
awful  gale  from  the  west,  and  the  rain  was  coming  down  in 
floods.  I  didn't  feel  very  anxious,  for  I  felt  almost  sure  the 
voyage  would  not  come  off.  She  went  by  Eotterdam,  thence 
by  small  steamer  to  Helvoetsluys,  where  the  Valk,  an  old  tub 
of  a  steam-frigate,  was  awaiting  her,  to  take  her  in  pomp  to 
Woolwich.  She  would  much  have  preferred,  I  think,  to  go  to 
Calais,  but  the  King,  from  various  reasons  of  state,  I  suppose, 
chose  that  the  Valk  (Falcon),  so-called  from  her  slowness, 
should  be  her  conveyance.  Gericke  received  a  telegram  in 
the  course  of  the  day  that  the  Queen  had  remained  at  Browers- 
haven  (at  the  mouth  of  the  Meuse),  doubtless  on  board  the 
Valk.  It  blew  great  guns  all  day.  I  was  looking  out  of  the 
window  and  saw  almost  the  whole  of  one  of  the  large  trees 
nearly  opposite  on  the  Kneuterdyk  blown  down  with  a  crash  ; 
at  which  many  street  boys,  emerging  apparently  from  under 
ground  like  toads  in  a  shower,  uttered  yells  of  triumph.  The 
weather  moderated  towards  midnight,  and  there  was  a  bright 
moon,  so  that  I  incline  to  think  the  Queen  would  have  started 
at  about  that  time  for  Browershaven. 

Our  dinner  went  off  well  enough.  The  Queen  came  in  about 
nine,  as  she  proposed  the  day  before  to  do,  and  was  very 
amiable  and  gracious.  She  went  away  about  ten.  The  rest 
of  the  company  remained  an  hour  longer. 

I  have  heard  nothing  from  Sumner ;  I  suppose  he  went  to 
Munich,  and  perhaps  won't  come  here  at  all.  I  will  mention 
his  name  to  Sheridan,  and  say  that  as  the  Queen  wished  much 
to  make  his  acquaintance,  I  ventured  to  make  an  exception 
in  suggesting  an  invitation  to  him.  I  was  interrupted  by  a 
visit  from  M.  Groen  van  Prinsterer.  I  mentioned  to  him  that 


1872.]        PROSPECTS  OF  GENERAL  GRANT'S  ELECTION.          355 

I  was  going  to  ask  Madame  G-roen  to  accept  a  small  sum  to 
dispose  in  charity  from  Lily  and  you. 

Your  very  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 

Sumner  arrived  Tuesday  afternoon — spent  the  rest  of  that 
day,  the  next  day,  and  departed  Tuesday  afternoon,  taking 
the  Harwich  boat  at  three  o'clock.  I  gave  him  and  read  him 
all  your  messages  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sheridan's,  with  which  he 
was  much  pleased  and  touched.  He  will  certainly  come  to 
Frampton,  if  it  be  a  possibility.  He  means,  I  think,  to  go  to 
Inveraray,  which  he  is  engaged  to  do  for  a  day,  but  even  then 
thinks  he  might  have  one  or  two  days  for  Frampton  during 
the  Queen's  visit. 

He  looks  much  as  usual,  and  I  fancy  is  much  improved 
since  his  departure  from  America. 

I  don't  think  he  doubts  much  as  to  Grant's  election.  Cer- 
tainly, since  the  October  successes  of  the  Kepublicans,  it  is 
difficult  to  doubt.  We  are  dining  out  now  every  day.  Thurs- 
day, a  family  dinner  at  Schimmelpennicks ;  Friday,  what 
would  have  been  a  pleasant  and  jolly  dinner  at  the  V. 
Brienens,  only  it  was  turned  into  a  tragedy  for  Susie  and  me 

by  the  sad  news  of  H /  which  Turckheim  communicated 

as  a  piece  of  interesting  news  at  the  beginning  of  the  dinner. 

Your  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 

1  News  of  the  early  death  of  beautiful  young  Countess  Bela  Sze'chenyi. 


2  A  2 


356  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 


CHAPTEK  XL 

LAST   YEARS. 

Bournemouth— Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Great  firo  in  Boston  and  its  conse- 
quences— '  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table ' — Bournemouth  and  its  climate 
— Sir  Percy  Shelley — Boscombe  House — Relics  of  Shelley — Burial  of  Lord 
Lytton  in  Westminster  Abbey — Visit  1o  Pcllimore  Park — Asking  for  advice 
— Mr.  Motley's  illness — Desire  to  go  to  America — Visit  to  Mentmore — Letter 
to  Baroness  Meyer  de  Rothschild — Miss  Thackeray — Education  in  Mas- 
sachusetts— Return  to  London — Hatfield  and  its  archives — Panshanger — 
Ball  at  Grosvenor  House — Improved  health — Work  on  *  Barneveld  s  Life ' — 
Chiswick — The  Shah — Dinner  \vifh  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Argyll — 
Various  entertainments — Fete  at  Northumberland  House — The  Prince  of 
Wales — The  emancipated  slave  singers — Progress  of  the  '  Life  of  Barneveld 
— Letter  from  Dean  Stanley — Fresh  attack  of  illness — Publication  of  the 
'Life  of  John  van  Olden  Barneveld '—Letter  from  Dean  Stanley — Canne.s 
— Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Account  of  Mr.  Motley's  illness — Death  of 
Mr.  Sumner — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Boston  gossip — Mrs.  Agassiz 
— Literary  work — Birth  of  a  grandson — Naworth  Castle — Death  of  Mrs. 
Motley — Letters  to  Baroness  Meyer  de  Rothschild  and  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes 
—Letter  from  Mr.  Carlyle— Letter  to  Mrs.  W.  W.  Wadsworth— Plans  for 
the  future — Letter  from  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — The  monotony  of  lecturing — 
Friendship  and  sorrow — Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — Failing  powets — Mr. 
Dana's  nomination — Mr.  Motley  elected  a  Member  of  the  Institute  of  France 
— Visit  to  the  Queen -of  the  Netherlands — Huis  ten  Bosch — Visit  to  Allen- 
heads — Letter  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll — The  Lakes — The  Eastern  Question 
— Letter  to  Dean  Stanley  on  Vol.  HI.  of  the  '  History  of  the  Jewish  Church  *" 
— London  in  winter — Lady  Marian  Alford — Hengler's  Circus — The  Eastern 
Question — Sir  William  Harcourt's  speech — Letter  to  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes — 
Marriage  of  Lady  Vernon  Harcourt  in  Westminster  Abbey — The  Turco- 
Russian  War — Princess  Louise  and  the  Marquis  of  Lome — Letter  from  Dr. 
O.  W.  Holmes — Reverence  for  the  past — Death  of  Mr.  Turner  Sargent — 
Letter  to  Mr.  H.  Cabot  Lodge— Death  of  Admiral  Davis— Letter  to  Dr.  O. 
W.  Holmes  on  the  death  of  his  son-in-law  and  of  Turner  Sargent — English 
politics — The  Eastern  Question — Visits  to  the  Duke  of  Somerset  at  Bulstrodo 
and  to  Mr.  Le  Strange  at  Hunstanton — Miss  Murtineau's  Autobiography — 
Kingston  Russell — Rumours  of  war  between  England  and  Russia — Extract- 
from  Dean  Stanley's  sermon — Conclusion. 

[The  winter  of  1872-73  Mr.  Motley  passed  at  Bournemouth, 
where  he  was  seriously  ill  from  the  rupture  of  a  blood-vessel 
in  the  lungs.] 

To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Tankerville,  Bournemouth, 

January  26lh,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — I  am  your  debtor  for  two  delightful 
letters,  16th  November  and  26th  December.  Your  account 


1873.]  GREAT  FIRE  IN  BOSTON.  357 

of  the  great  fire1  was  most  interesting.  It  is  exactly  this 
kind  of  calamity  which  makes  an  exile,  and  almost  an  outlaw, 
feel  specially  homesick.  One  wishes  to  share  in  the  common 
sorrow,  and  exchange  sympathy  with  those  who  are  hit  hardest 
and  those  who  have  escaped.  As  IJ  understand  the  matter,  it 
is  hardly  the  very  poor  that  have  most  suffered,  but  the  rich, 
who  can  bear  it,  as  the  saying  is,  although  I  never  saw  a  rich 
man  yet  who  enjoyed  losing  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  nor  do  I  see  why  he  should.  I  should  suppose  people  of 
limited  incomes,  who  had  good  dividends  from  insurance  stock, 
which  they  looked  on  as  regularly  productive  as  the  milch 
cow  or  the  pump,  and  who  now  see  the  whole  swept  into 
nothingness,  are  among  those  to  be  commiserated.  I  have  not 
come  off  scatheless  myself,  having  had  stock  in  the  Merchants, 
Boston,  National  or  American  Insurance  Company,  all  of  which 
yielded,  I  think,  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent,  annually  on  the 
investment,  and  all  of  which,  save  the  last-named,  have  gone 
to  Abraham's  bosom.  But  every  one  is  plucky  and  energetic. 
I  believe  that  is  the  consecrated  expression,  and  I  am  so  like- 
wise. Not  that  I  see  how  my  pluck  and  ?_ energy  will  bring 
me  back  the  lost  dividends,  or  prevent  the  hiatum  valde 
deflendum  in  my  year's  accounts.  Nevertheless,  I  have  sent 
one  hundred  dollars  for  the  general  relief,  and  another  hundred 
for  poor  old  Harvard,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  is  all 
that  duty  seemed  to  require  from  a  lame  duck  like  myself. 

The  quarter  of  the  town  burnt  was  to  me  a  ruin  when  I  sur- 
veyed it  last ;  that  is  to  say,  it  was  a  new  commercial  quarter, 
which  had  risen  like  an  exhalation  over  the  grave  of  the  good 
old  Franklin  and  Summer  Streets,  Winthrop  and  Otis  Place, 
and  the  like,  which  were  the  familiar  haunts  of  my  youth, 
and  filled  with  most  agreeable  memories  of  middle  age.  And 
when  I  came  back  and  tried  to  trace  the  old  landmarks  amid 
the  crop  of  granite  warehouses  which  had  usurped  their  places, 
I  felt  forlorn.  And  now  this  has  vanished  too,  like  a  scene  in 
a  pantomime.  For  me  I  can  see  the  old  street  scenery  of 
1840-50  with  perfect  distinctness  now  in  my  mind's  eye, 
while  the  things  just  destroyed  leave  hardly  a  wrack  behind 

1  In  Boston. 


358  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

in  my  memory.  I  am  none  the  less  deeply  sorry  for  the 
calamity,  and  those  whom  it  touches  most. 

I  think  I  have  already  told  you  how  much  I  enjoyed  the 
1  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table/  of  which  I  read  every  number 
as  it  came  out  in  the  Atlantic.  You  have  no  idea  how 
much  pleasure  it  gives  me  to  see  your  familiar  and  beloved 
face  on  the  outside  of  cheap  editions  at  railway  stations  every- 
where. It  is  odd  how  tolerably  good  and  not  intolerably 
caricaturish  they  get  you  on  those  yellow  covers,  and  sell  you 
for  one  or  two  base  shillings,  to  the  detriment  of  your  purse 
but  to  the  increase  of  your  renown.  Everybody  I  meet  in 
society  knows  and  appreciates  thoroughly  your  delightful 
triology,  or  trinity — tria  juncta  in  uno — Autocrat,  Professor, 
Poet.  I  wonder  whether  you  could  not  send  me,  care  Baring 
Bros.  &  Co.,  the  three  volumes,  with  your  name  inside  ?  You 
know  how  much  pleasure  it  will  give  me.  I  can  buy  easily 
enough,  but  I  hate  not  to  have  a  presentation  copy.  I 
believe  I  have  sent  you  all  my  ponderous  volumes.  If  not, 
pray  let  me  know  that  I  may  repair  the  omission.  I  know  I 
always  meant  to  do  so.  I  have  another  volume  written,  and 
am  waiting  to  get  a  little  more  strength  before  finishing  it  off 
for  the  press.  But  I  have  entirely  lost  all  pleasure  in  publish- 
ing. I  shall  go  on  writing,  that  is  to  say,  I  shall  do  so  when 
I  get  over  the  horror  of  the  inkstand,  the  kind  of  delirium 
tremens  which  I  suppose  is  the  natural  result  of  committing 
excesses  in  the  fluid,  by  which  I  am  now  oppressed,  but  I  dare- 
say what  I  write  may  be  left  to  my  executors,  who  will  think 
it  perhaps  best  to  light  fires  with  the  MS. 

I  have  very  little  to  amuse  you  with.  We  are  living  in  a 
very  quiet,  dull,  seaside  nondescript,  for  it  is  neither  town, 
village,  watering-place,  nor  spa,  but  a  most  heterogeneous 
collection  of  villas  and  semi-detached  houses,  sprinkled  about, 
with  hardly  a  street,  over  a  pitch-pine  covered  barren  heath 
along  a  pretty  curved  sea-coast  in  the  south  of  Hampshire. 
"  Marry,  good  air ! "  as  Justice  Shallow  says.  What  a  strange 
thing  that  Gulf  Stream  is,  for  I  suppose  it  is  that  which  at 
this  moment  forces  me  to  throw  open  wide  the  window  at 
which  I  am  writing,  although  the  fire  is  almost  dead  in  the 


1873.]  SIE  PEKCY  SHELLEY.  359 

grate.  The  sound  of  the  surf  comes  sleepily  in  from  the 
sandy  cove  over  which  our  villa  looks,  the  laurustinus  is  in 
full  flower,  the  gorse  is  never  without  its  yellow  stars,  and 
there  is  a  pleasant  fragrance  from  the  pine-woods  behind  the 
house.  Snow  and  ice  are  as  undreamed  of  as  if  we  lived  in 
Egypt,  and  yet  here  we  are  ten  degrees  nearer  the  North  Pole 
than  in  Boston,  which,  I  suppose,  is  buried  in  a  white  deluge 
about  this  time.  Yesterday  the  sun  was  shining,  and  I  sat  a 
long  time  on  the  cliffs,  looking  out  on  the  Channel. 

"  The  sun  was  warm,  the  sky  was  clear, 
The  waves  were  dancing  fast  and  bright," 

as  if  it  had  been  the  Bay  of  Naples,  which  the  dejected  Shelley 
so  exquisitely  sang. 

And  that  reminds  me  that  Sir  Percy  Shelley,  son  of  the 
poet,  is  our  nearest  neighbour  here.  He  called  the  other  day. 
I  was  sitting  alone  when  the  servant  announced  Sir  Percy 
Shelley ;  it  gave  me  a  start,  and  I  could  not  help  saying, 
"  Your  name  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  to  me  from  boyhood 
up,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  They  are  rather  famous  for  pri- 
vate theatricals.  And  I  am  glad  to  say  that  he  and  his  wife 
have  a  veritable  culte  for  the  memory  of  the  poet.  They  are 
not  able  to  live  at  the  family  seat  in  Sussex,  on  account  of 
their  health,  but  have  created  a  very  pretty  home  near  this. 
Boscombe  House,  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  which  is  a  sort  of 
shrine  to  Shelley,  a  cast  of  the  marble  monument  erected  to 
him  in  the  neighbouring  church  at  a  place  called  Christchurch, 
and  tables  covered  with  glass,  under  which  are  memorials  and 
relics,  locks  of  his  hair  and  of  Byron,  Trelawny,  Leigh  Hunt, 
and  other  of  his  companions,  a  glove  found  in  the  boat  in  which 
he  was  drowned,  a  soaked  little  volume  of  Aeschylus,  which 
he  had  with  him  in  his  last  moments,  and  other  things.  The 
very  beautiful  and  poetical  picture  of  him,  which  is  the  frontis- 
piece to  all  the  editions  of  his  works,  is  the  only  portrait  of 
him  (except  one  done  of  him  as  a  child  by  the  Due  de  Mont- 
pensier,  brother  of  Louis  Philippe,  and  by  him  given  to  the 
two  old  ladies  who  lived  together  in  eternal  friendship  and 
seclusion  in  the  Vale  of  Llangollen),  and  it  turns  out  to  be 
authentic.  I  always  supposed  it  to  be  imaginary.  It  was 


360  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

done  by  an  amateur,  a  Miss  Somebody,  and  there  was  but  one 
sitting.  I  saw  a  beautifully  executed  copy  on  ivory  the  other 
day  at  the  house,  and  am  to  see  the  original  a  few  days  hence, 
when  we  are  going  to  dine  with  them.  Perhaps  I  am  boring 
you  with  alt  this  about  Shelley.  Perhaps  you  think  me  wrong 
in  my  admiration  of  his  poetry.  You  are  a  much  better  judge, 
being  a  poet  yourself,  than  such  a  prosaic  animal  as  I  am, 
but  I  hope  you  will  sanction  my  enthusiasm. 

So  Lytton  is  gone  to  Westminster  Abbey.  It  was,  on  the 
whole,  a  noble  life,  for  its  untiring  industry,  energy,  and  many- 
sidedness  both  of  genius  and  scholarship  and  practical  business. 
He  died  pen  in  hand,  and  they  say  his  novel  soon  to  appear  is 
among  his  best.  His  play  of  *  Money,'  which  I  have  read,  is 
running  hundreds  of  nights  now  at  one  of  the  chief  theatres 
in  London.  He  was  a  good  Grecian,  Latinist,  German.  He 
was  a  respectable  Cabinet  Minister.  He  achieved  a  peer- 
age for  his  declining  years,  and  a  tomb  in  Westminster 
Abbey.  I  knew  him  very  well,  and  once  spent  a  few  days 
with  him  at  Knebworth,  and  always  thought  him  delightful 
company.  His  son  Robert,  who  succeeds  him,  is  a  particularly 
sympathetic  and  interesting  fellow,  with  a  good  deal  of  talent, 
and  who  will  get  to  the  top  of  his  profession  (as  diplomat). 
We  were  very  intimate  with  him  in  Vienna,  and  like  him 
much.  We  have  been  making  a  few  Christmas  visits  in 
Devonshire,  at  Poltimore  Park,  a  pleasant  and  rather  stately 
country  house,  whose  proprietors  are  connections  of  my 
daughter  Mary,  Lord  Poltimore  having  married  her  husband's 
sister,  a  beautiful  and  agreeable  person.  Subsequently  we 
passed  a  week  at  Stover  with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Somerset,  the  latter,  sister  of  Mr.  Sheridan.  We  have  been 
back  here  a  fortnight,  and  have  Mary  and  her  two  pretty 
children  on  a  visit  to  us,  to  our  great  delight.  I  do  not  find 
the  climate  very  invigorating,  although  it  is  agreeable.  The 
truth  is,  I  am  afraid  it  is  awfully  depressing.  We  came  here 
for  my  wife's  health,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  it  seems  to 
have  done  her  good.  Did  you  get  a  Saturday  Review  I  sent 
you  about  six  weeks  ago  ?  You  mention  having  seen  agree- 
able notices  of  the  'Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table'  in  the 


1873.]  MR.  MOTLEY'S  ILLNESS.  361 

Spectator.  I  thought  this  in  the  Saturday  Review  a  well 
written  and  appreciative  article,  and  sent  it,  supposing  it  just 
possible  that  you  might  miss  it.  It  was  not  warm  or  en- 
thusiastic enough,  but  warmth  and  enthusiasm  do  not  sprout 
in  the  Saturday. 

You  were   kind  enough  in  your  letter  of  26th  December 

to  allude  to  my  attack,  of  which  my  brother  N had  told 

you.  Perhaps,  as  an  old  patient  of  yours,  who  never  had  so 
good  a  doctor,  and  who  gave  up  the  business  of  being  ill  when 
you  retired  from  practice,  I  may  venture  to  present  myself 
to  you  in  the  fag  end  of  this  letter  as  a  case.  Perhaps  you 
will  not  mind  giving  me,  without  assuming  any  responsibility, 
however,  from  which  I  entirely  absolve  you,  a  bit  of  advice 
on  one  point  as  to  which  I  mean  to  ask.  My  "case"  is 
briefly  this :  Turning  myself  in  bed  one  morning,  as  I  was 
about  to  get  up,  I  felt  a  slight  rattling  on  my  chest,  coughed 
a  little  spasmodically,  and  found  my  mouth  full  of  blood, 
red  and  frothy.  I  coughed  again  and  again,  still  bringing 
up  pure  blood  at  every  spasm.  This  continued  some  ten 
minutes,  and  then  ceased.  I  had  no  cold,  cough,  or  any 
previous  indisposition.  After  a  few  minutes  more  I  deter- 
mined to  treat  the  matter  with  contempt,  got  up,  took  my 
bath  as  usual,  and  came  down  to  breakfast.  I  had  little 
appetite,  and  eat  almost  nothing,  felt  faint  soon  afterwards, 
and  took  some  weak  brandy  and  water.  Very  soon  after- 
wards the  haemorrhage  returned,  and  very  copiously.  The 
doctor  was  sent  for ;  the  usual  remedies  of  hot  foot-bath,  with 
mustard,  ice  on  the  chest  and  in  the  mouth,  were  applied. 
The  bleeding  continued  till  evening  without  intermission. 
The  next  day  but  one  it  was  renewed,  but  the  haemorrhage, 
although  rather  copious,  was  less  violent  than  on  the  first 
day.  I  was  kept  in  bed  for  about  eight  or  nine  days,  and  for- 
bidden to  talk  or  move,  which  commands,  of  course,  I  did  not 
obey,  and  fed  on  milk  and  water  and  other  refreshing  things. 
There  was  no  further  bleeding,  except  coughing  up  what  the 
M.D.  called  the  plug  or  clot.  Since  then  I  have  been  about 
as  usual,  and,  although  debilitated  somewhat,  I  am  as  I  have 
been  during  the  two  past  years.  I  liked  the  Hague  so  much, 


362  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XL 

and  had  such  lots  to  do  in  the  Archives,  that  I  was  most 
unwilling  to  leave,  but  I  have  left  it  at  last,  and  I  fear  not 
half  the  man  physically  or  mentally  that  I  was  when  I  went 
into  it.  I  mention  this  as  you  are  not  here,  alas!  to  put 
leading  questions.  I  can  hardly  think  the  walk  in  the  high 
wind  can  have  been  causa  causans.  If  so,  what  would  become 
of  me  around  Park  Street  Corner  in  February  ? 

I  am  not  in  the  least  fidgety  or  anxious  about  myself — 
can  hardly  look  at  the  matter  seriously.  In  the  first  and 
second  appearance  of  this  unwarranted  and  unexpected  haemor- 
rhage, I  did  for  a  moment  feel,  as  Yorick  said  to  Eugenius, 

that  "  as  this  son  of  a  has  found  out  my  lodgings,  it  is 

time  for  me  to  change  them,  and  give  him  a  dance  for  me," 
or  words  to  that  effect,  but  the  impression  soon  wore  off.  I 
am  sure  that  my  lungs  are  sound,  not  so  sure  about  the 
heart,  although  I  dare  say  that  it  is  only  shaky  in  its  action 
without  being  degenerated.  The  theory  of  my  doctor  here, 
who  seems  an  intelligent  man,  is,  that  in  consequence  of  an 
enfeebled  action  of  the  heart  there  was  congestion  of  the 
left  lung,  followed  by  rupture  of  a  blood  vessel.  Does  this 
sound  philosophical  to  you?  I  do  wish  I  could  talk  with 
you  and  hear  you  philosophise  about  it,  and  "  moralise  it  into 
a  thousand  similes."  There  would  be  some  satisfaction  in 
being  shaky  then.  I  shall  perhaps  consult  Gull  one  of  these 
days  in  London.  He  did  examine  me  thoroughly  about  two 
and  a  half  years  ago.  I  consulted  him  about  that  spasmodic 
suffocating  tendency  which  seemed  to  increase  upon  me  and 
becomes  at  times  almost  intolerable.  He  could  discover  then 
no  organic  disease  whatever.  I  think  he  found  the  heart 
over  large,  but  not  necessarily  overgrown.  But  I  should  a 
thousand  times  rather  hear  you  talk  about  it  than  all  the 
doctors  in  England.  I  will  now  put  my  question,  which  is  a 
practical  one :  I  wish  to  go  home  to  Boston  this  summer ; 
do  you  think  that  the  mechanical  action  of  sea  sickness, 
to  which  I  am  liable  if  the  weather  is  very  rough,  would 
probably  cause  the  rupture  of  a  blood  vessel  and  consequent 
haemorrhage  ?  I  say  probably,  because  you  would  not  commit 
yourself  to  saying  it  was  not  possible.  A  haemorrhage  on 


1873.]  MENTMORE.  363 

board  ship  in  a  gale  of  wind  would  be  a  confounded  mess. 
The  remedies  for  that  would  hardly  help  the  sea  sickness, 
and  in  fact  it  might  be  a  rather  difficult  matter  to  deal  with. 
I  intend  to  go,  for  no  one  can  possibly  be  sure  that  I  should 
not  escape  both  sea  sickness  and  haemorrhage,  or  that  the 
one  would  necessarily  cause  the  other.  Still,  if  it  does  not 
bore  you  too  much,  I  should  be  grateful  if  you  would  kindly 
let  me  know  what  you  think  on  this  one  point.  When  I 
do  see  you  I  shall  make  you  thump  me  and  bump  me  to  a 
jelly.  Pray  pardon  me  for  the  frightful  egotism  of  this  letter, 
and  do  not  believe  that  I  have  taken  up  the  line  of  being  a 
chronic  invalid.  I  repeat  that  I  am  neither  fidgety  nor  hypo- 
chondriacal,  but  I  really  thought  you  would  be  artistically  or 
scientifically  interested  in  the  "  case." 

Mary  and  the  rest  send  much  love  to  you  and  yours,  in 
which  I  heartily  join,  with  best  wishes  for  the  still  New 
Year.  Ever  most  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 

To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Mentmore,  Leighton  Buzzard, 
February  22nd,  1873. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, —  ....  This  more  bracing  air  than 
Bournemouth  has  done  me  so  much  good  that  I  could  not 
resist  the  urgent  and  most  cordial  invitation  they  gave  us  to 
stay  on,  although  when  we  came  we  hardly  expected  to  stay 
more  than  four  or  five  days.  .  .  .  Nothing  can  be  kinder  and 
more  hospitable  in  every  way  than  the  master1  and  mistress  of 
the  house  and  their  daughter.  I  like  them  all  exceedingly. 
The  house  is  finer  even  than  I  expected,  and  it  is  really 
wonderful  that  such  a  splendid  palace  should  have  been  built 
and  decorated,  with  the  grounds  and  parks,  and  dairies  and 
gardens,  and  stables  and  home-farms,  and  plantations,  in  so 
brief  a  space  of  time.  The  house  is  very  imposing  on  the 
outside — a  structure  reminding  one  a  little  of  Highclere,  only 
it  is  a  good  deal  larger.  Inside  the  great  hall,  which  I  suppose 
(at  a  venture)  is  seventy  feet  square  and  as  many  high,  is 
arranged  comfortably  as  well  as  gorgeously  (with  old  Arras 

1  Baron  Meyer  de  Rothschild. 


364  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XL 

tapestry  and  Venetian  chairs,  and  a  vast  fireplace  from  Eubens' 
house),  that  it  is  as  agreeable  a  place  to  sit  in  as  many  a 
salon  of  smaller  dimensions.  The  splendid  dining-room  is 
upholstered  entirely  from  the  Conti  Palace  at  Paris;  style, 
Louis  XV. ;  and  the  White  drawing-room  is  of  Louis  XVI. 
epoch,  with  furniture ;  pictures  by  Fragonard.  The  Green 
drawing-room  contains  a  wonderfully  fine  Kubens  (his  Forman 
wife),  a  Kembrandt,  a  Titian,  and  one  or  two  other  old  masters. 
There  is  a  perfect  museum  of  objets  de  gout  in  etageres  and 
cabinets.  .  .  . 

It  is  a  splendid  creation,  Mentmore,  where  wealth  has  been 
guided  by  science  and  taste.  It  is  impossible  not  to  have  a 
great  respect  for  the  Kothschilds.  They  do  an  immense 
amount  of  good,  and  practise  the  Christian  virtues  more  than 
most  people  who  belong  to  the  Christian  Churches.  .  .  . 

This  evening  a  fresh  party  is  expected — Granvilles,  Coutts's, 
Lindsays,  and  others.  I  am  sorry  that  the  Dudleys  have  been 
unable  to  keep  their  engagement,  but  he  has  been  taken  ill. 
I  should  have  liked  to  see  so  beautiful  a  person  as  Lady 
Dudley  once  more.  .  .  . 

Don't  I  wish  I  could  see  that  darling  little  duck  of  a  May, 
and  turn  her  loose  among  two  or  three  cabinets  of  gems  and 
curiosities,  each  one  worth  a  king's  ransom,  or  considerably 
more,  as  kings  go  nowadays  ?  I  delight  in  all  you  write  about 
her. 

With  love  to  Algy, 

Ever  your  affectionate, 

AGED  P. 


To  Baroness  Meyer  de  Rothschild. 

Tankerville,  Bournemouth, 
Match  2nd,  1873. 

MY  DEAR  BARONESS, — I  write  a  line  to  inform  you  of  our 
safe  arrival  at  our  retired  abode,  and  to  have  the  pleasure  of 
saying  'to  you  once  more  how  thoroughly  I  appreciate — as 
well  as  my  wife  and  daughters  do — your  constant  and  untiring 
kindness  and  hospitality  during  our  delightful  visit  at  Ment- 
more. Pray  assure  the  Baron  and  Miss  Hannah  that  nothing 
could  have  been  more  agreeable  than  those  fourteen  days  and 


1873.]  EDUCATION  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  365 

nights,  which  passed  away  for  us,  alas !  only  too  rapidly,  and 
that  we  shall  always  look  back  upon  them  with  delight, 
mingled  with  regret  that  they  are  already  in  the  past. 

My  journey  to  London  would  have  been  bleak  and  cheerless 
enough  that  stormy  and  rainy  morning,  bat  Miss  Thackeray 
turned  it  all  into  sunshine,  and  her  conversation  was  so  inter- 
esting that  I  was  very  sorry  when  we  arrived  at  Euston,  and 
were  obliged  to  get  into  our  respective  hansoms,  and  diverge 
into  foggy  space.  My  wife  and  Lily  had  barely  time  to 
reach  Waterloo  in  season  for  the  3.15  train  for  Bournemouth, 
and  I  had  been  fidgeting  up  and  down  the  platform  for  twenty 
minutes  before  they  came,  so  that  I  had  plenty  of  leisure  to 
indulge  in  my  besetting  and  detested  sin  of  punctuality.  I 
called  at  Prussia  House,  and  had  a  long  and  satisfactory  inter- 
view with  Countess  Bernstorff. 

She  seemed  in  much  better  spirits,  and  was  looking  much 
better  than  I  had  anticipated ;  and  I  feel  that  there  is  an 
instinctive  conviction  in  her  mind,  perhaps  almost  against 
reasoning,  that  her  husband  will  recover. 

I  send  herewith,  as  I  promised,  the  latest  annual  address  of 
the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  that  I  possess.  I  have  turned 
down  the  pages  relating  to  education.  You  will  see  that  the 
amount  expended  that  year  is,  as  I  thought,  about  one  million 
sterling  for  educational  purposes.  As  the  sum  is  steadily  in- 
creasing, it  is  probably  a  little  more  than  a  million,  as  the 
report  sent  is  for  the  year  1869.  The  population  of  the  State 
is  about  1,200,000.  As  you  are  so  widely  and  practically 
benevolent  yourself,  you  may  find  some  of  the  other  topics 
treated  of,  especially  those  relating  to  State  charities,  to  have 
interest  for  you.  My  wife  and  daughters  unite  in  warmest 
regards  to  yourself,  the  Baron,  and  Miss  Hannah.  Her  mag- 
nificent voice  is  always  ringing  in  my  ears.  I  wish  I  could 
hear  the  *  Erl  Konig '  to-night.  Our  kind  remembrances  to 
Miss  Morck. 

Ever,  my  dear  Baroness, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


366  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

The  Deanery,  Westminster, 

Friday,  March  28th,  1873. 

MY  DEAKEST  LILY, — .  .  .  .  We  are  very  glad  to  hear  such, 
brilliant  accounts  of  Mary  and  the  babies,  and  are  looking 
forward  with  great  pleasure  to  seeing  them  at  Bournemouth 
....  We  made  a  good  many  calls  in  the  afternoon.  Saw 
the  Duchess  of  Somerset.  Went  to  Lowther  Lodge,  where 
Mrs.  Lowther  had  people  calling  and  meandering — it  was  such 
a  splendid  day — in  the  garden ;  and  a  call  at  Lord  Eussell's, 
and  found  him  and  Lady  Agatha.  He  talked  a  good  deal, 
and  was  very  amusing.  I  think  we  got  into  no  house  after- 
wards except  Baroness  Meyer's.  Our  dinner-party  in  the 
evening  consisted,  as  the  Court  Journal  would  say,  of  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Bedford,  the  Beaumonts,  the  Granvilles, 
Mrs.  T.  Bruce,  the  Master  of  the  Temple  and  Mrs.  Vaughan, 
Dasent,  Mr.  Llewellyn  Davies,  a  very  excellent  and  interesting- 
clergyman,  Lord  Clan william,  and  Susie,  whom  Lady  Augusta 
was  kind  enough  to  go  yesterday  and  invite,  and  ask  Mrs. 
Bruce  to  bring.  That  dear  little  woman  lives  in  Hill  Street, 
in  the  house  which  faces  down  the  street.  As  you  know  the 
composition  of  the  party,  I  need  not  say  how  agreeable  it  was  ; 
but  I  must  again  repeat  in  all  sincerity  that  it  was  spoiled  for 
us  by  your  not  being  there.  I  felt  that  you  would  have 
enjoyed  it  so  much.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  child. 

Your  affectionate  and  loving 

P. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Bulstrode,1 
June  8th,  1873. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  haven't  much  to  say,  but  I  thought 
I  would  like  to  let  you  know  that  we  are  as  comfortable  and 
flourishing  as  the  awful  east  wind  will  allow  us  to  be.  We 
had  a  delightful  visit  at  Hatfield.  I  suppose  Lily  has  told 

1  The  Duke  of  Somerset's. 


1873.]  HATFIELD— PANSHANGER.  367 

you  who  the  company  were— Selbornes,  Lyttons,  Lord  Sligo, 
Venables,  and  others. 

I  enjoyed  myself  highly  in  reading  some  of  the  papers — the 
family  archives,  which  are  very  valuable  and  interesting.  I 
wish  I  could  have  had  access  to  them  while  I  was  writing  the 
'  United  Netherlands/  as  there  are  masses  of  letters  of  Burghley, 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  other  swells  of  the  period,  which  would 
have  been  of  immense  use  to  me.  .  .  . 

They *  like  nothing  better  than  to  have  one  take  interest  in 
these  treasures.  I  read  in  the  few  days  that  we  passed  there 
a  good  many  things  which  I  can  make  some  use  of,  and  Lord 
Salisbury  has  kindly  directed  his  secretary  to  copy  them  for 
me.  .  .  . 

We  had  a  charming  little  visit  at  Panshanger.  It  is  by  no 
means  so  splendid  a  house  as  Hatfield ;  but  they  have  a  very 
fine  gallery  of  pictures,  mostly  Italian.  The  house  is  a  very 
cheerful  one,  and  the  park  almost  the  finest  I  have  seen  in 
England — beautifully  undulating  ground,  with  magnificent 
trees.  Lady  Cowper,  as  you  know,  is  beautiful  and  very  attrac- 
tive in  her  ways.  The  only  other  guests  are  her  father  and 
mother  and  sister,  and  Dicky  Doyle  and  Lady  Eipon.  We 
came  here  Thursday.  The  next  day  we  drove  to  Clivedon, 
which  now  belongs  to  the  Westminsters.  I  had  seen  the  place 
before,  in  the  late  Duchess  of  Sutherland's  time.  It  is  a 
princely  villa,  with  the  finest  view  in  England  except  that 
from  Eichmond  Hill.  .  .  .  There  are  no  guests  here  but 
Alfred  Montgomery.  Lady  Hermione  and  her  two  daughters 
were  here  the  first  night.  I  thought  them  perfectly  charm- 
ing. .  .  .  Love  to  all.  Your  loving 

GAPPA. 


To  Us  Wife.2 

42,  Hill  Street,  Berkeley  Square,  London, 
June  ZltJi,  1873,  10  A.M. 

DEAREST    MARY, —  .  .  .  The  ball    last    night   was  really 
magnificent3 — the  finest  thing  I  have  seen  this  season.     It 

1  Lord  and  Lady  Salisbury.        "  On  a  visit  to  the  Hon.  and  Mrs.  Thomas  Bruce. 
3  At  Grosvenor  House. 


368  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

was  not  crowded,  and  the  beautifully  decorated  rooms,  with 
the  splendid  pictures  and  the  illuminated  garden,  were  a  fine 
spectacle.  All  the  world  was  there — the  Prince  and  Princess, 
the  Cesarewitches,  and  others.  I  had  hardly  time  to  speak  to 
Lady  Westminster,  as  she  was  so  deep  in  royalties.  But  I 
made  a  point  of  finding  her  and  thanking  her.  She  was  very 
benignant  and  radiant,  as  she  always  is,  and  looked  very 
handsome.  The  Prince  of  Wales  came  up  to  me  and  saluted 
me  very  cordially,  and  expressed  his  pleasure  at  seeing  me. 
Our  interview  was  very  short,  as  he  had  the  Duchess  of 
Manchester  on  his  arm,  and  was  walking  in  an  opposite 
direction  through  the  crowd.  I  had  also  a  little  talk  with 
the  Duke  of  Teck.  I  did  not  come  in  contact  with  any  other 
royal  personage. 

The  Shah,  thank  heaven  !  wasn't  there,  being,  as  you  know 
at  Trentham,  Liverpool,  Manchester,  etc 

I  am  going  round  to  see  Murray.  By  the  way,  I  find  I 
have  the  photographs  of  the  Hague  which  I  bewailed  in  my 
last  night's  letter.  I  hope  you  won't  delay  the  MS.  till  after 
searching  for  these. 

I  have  just  had  an  interview  with  the  baby — a  dear  little 
fair  plump  thing,  two  years  old,  who  talks  very  fast  in  a 
language  known  to  herself.  But  nothing  can  ever  compare 
to  May.  The  little  boy  and  girl  were  both  present  at  my 
breakfast,  and  were  very  jolly  and  friendly. 

I  will  write  again  to-morrow. 

Love  to  Lily  and  Susie. 

Ever  your  loving  and  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 

P.S. — It  is  extraordinary  how  well  I  feel  in  London.  I 
went  to  bed  about  four,  got  up  before  nine,  and  am  perfectly 
fresh.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  air  is  bracing — I  wish 
Bournemouth  was. 


1873.]  THE   SHAH  IN  LOXDOX.  369 


To  his  Wife. 

42,  Hill  Street,  Berkeley  Square, 
June  29th,  1873. 

MY  DEAEEST  MARY, — I  have  really  made  a  beginning  with 
my  MS.,  having  got  up  at  half-past  six  this  morning,  and 
worked  until  ten.  We  have  just  finished  breakfast,  and 
before  taking  up  Mr.  Barneveld  again,  I  wish  to  write  to  you, 
and  will  leave  my  letter  open  until  night.  If  posted  then,  it 
will  reach  you  at  luncheon  time. 

The  party  at  Chiswick  was  very  successful.  I  do  wish  you 
could  have  been  there  ;  there  seemed  pretty  much  everybody 
one  wished  to  see,  and  very  few  bores.  The  day  was  magnifi- 
cent. The  Braces  and  I  went  down  in  an  open  victoria. 
The  road  the  whole  way  from  Hyde  Park  Corner  almost  to  the 
very  door  of  the  Chiswick  villa,  was  lined  with  triple  and 
quadruple  rows  of  spectators — men,  women,  and  children,  on 
windows,  balconies,  and  housetops.  It  is  astonishing  the 
interest  the  Shah  excites  in  all  classes.  We  got  down  early. 
The  Princess  received  her  guests  at  the  door  opening  on  the 
lawn,  and  I  was  gratified  that  she  recognised  me,  without  my 
being  announced. 

I  had  an  excellent  sight  of  the  Shah,  as  he  passed  slowly  by 
close  to  me,  on  arriving,  with  the  Princess  on  his  arm,  and 
escorted  by  the  Prince.  On  the  whole  he  is  rather  a  disagree- 
able-looking "nigger,"  with  no  Oriental  beauty  about  him 
and  a  thick  ugly  nose.  I  saw  and  conversed  with  hundreds 
of  old  friends  and  enjoyed  myself  very  well.  It  is  certainly 
marvellous  how  much  stronger  I  am  in  London  than  anywhere. 
I  am  never  sleepy  in  the  daytime,  however  early  I  get  up, 
and  never  fatigued  after  walking  about  the  streets  half  the 
day.  I  saw  Sir  W.  Gull  at  the  fete,  who  approved  of  my 
course  in  avoiding  Bournemouth,  and  wished  me  to  shorten 
my  stay  as  much  as  possible  at  the  Hague.  There  were  some 
astoundingly  mirobolant  costumes,  but  on  the  whole  I  imagine 
the  dresses  would  have  been  considered  effective  and  chic 
even  by  Susie. 

The  dinner  at  the  Argylls  was  quite  delightful.     It  was  a 
VOL.  n.  2  B 


370  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  XI. 

family  party ;  the  only  outsider  besides  myself  was  Holman 
Hunt.  As  I  went  in  with  the  Duchess,  I  was  of  course  out  of 
speaking  distance  with  the  Princess.  But  I  couldn't  help 
looking  at  her  often.  She  has  a  most  attractive  and  sympa- 
thetic face,  and  her  voice  is  so  delicious  that  one  stops  to 
listen  to  it  involuntarily.  I  never  saw  the  Duchess  more  agree- 
able and  sympathetic,  and  he  was  especially  jolly. 

After  dinner  we  sat  outside  in  the  verandah,  and  I  talked 
an  hour  with  the  Princess.  The  Duchess  sat  by  too,  and 
altogether  the  evening  was  so  agreeable  as  to  be  long 
remembered.  Only  it  absolutely  spoiled  my  pleasure  that 
Lily  was  not  there,  and  that  she  so  unnecessarily  and  per- 
versely returned  to  Bournemouth.  I  should  like  to  go  on 
writing  to  you,  dear  Mary,  but  I  really  must  clutch  my  MS. 
again  and  get  to  work.  I  hope  when  printed  it  won't  bore 

the  gentle  reader  as  much  as  it  does  the  gentle  author 

Affectionately  and  lovingly  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

42,  Hill  Street,  Berkeley  Square, 
July  2nd,  1873. 

MY  DEAEEST  MAKY, — For  myself  it  is  astonishing  how  well 
I  am.  There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  climate  of 
London  is  an  excellent  tonic,  and  suits  my  constitution  re- 
markably. It  is  not  because  I  am  amused  and  interested  by 
the  society.  But  I  can  do  so  much  work  here  so  easily. 

Last  night  I  didn't  return  from  Northumberland  House 
before  half-past  three,  and  here  I  am  writing  to  you  at  eight 
o'clock.  I  can't  sleep  later  than  six  if  I  try — so  I  may  as  well 
get  the  benefit  of  the  time.  I  grudge  writing  to  any  one  but 
you,  because  I  am  so  greedy  of  my  time. 

Monday  I  dined  with  Lady  Margaret  Beaumont.  I  can't 
quite  recollect  what  I  did  during  the  day — nothing  very 
memorable,  I  suspect,  except  to  pound  at  my  MS.,  in  which  I 
make  good  progress.  On  Sunday  we  had  a  few  people  here  to 


1873.]  FETE  AT  NORTHUMBERLAND  HOUSE.  371 

dinner — Lady  Gal  way  and  her  husband,  and  Kinglake,  whom 
it  is  always  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  meet.  I  went  with 
Bruce  after  midnight  to  the  Cosmopolitan.  Had  we  got  there 
a  few  minutes  earlier  we  should  have  met  the  Shah's  Grand 
Vizier.  The  only  persons  left  were  Morley,  Stirling,  Evelyn 
Ashley,  etc. 

M—  -  is  getting  rather  tired  of  the  Shah.  He  is  specially 
appointed  to  wait  on  him.  They  had  just  gone  that  afternoon 
promiscuously  to  visit  Lord  John  at  Pembroke  Lodge.  I  saw 
Lady  Kussell  yesterday  afternoon,  and  she  said  Lord  Eussell 
was  immensely  amused  by  the  Shah.  I  will  not  say  a  word 
more  on  that  boring  subject — so  return  to  Monday. 

Yesterday  I  went  and  lunched  with  dear  old  Lady  Moles- 
worth 

At  five  I  went  to  Montagu  House.  The  Duchess,  who  is 
the  most  amiable  person  in  London,  had  sent  cards  for  all  our 
family  for  these  two  Tuesdays.  The  day  was  very  fine,  and  all 
the  world  was  there.  You  know  those  fetes,  so  you  may  be 
spared  a  description.  It  was  a  very  brilliant  one  of  its  kind. 
I  saw  many  people. 

In  the  evening  I  dined  with  the  Nesbit  Hamiltons,  where 
were  the  Billows,  the  Graves's  (the  painter),  Lord  Camper- 
down,  Browning,  Lady  Elgin,  and  some  other  people  I  didn't 
know.  I  sat  next  to  Lady  Mary — B  Li  low  taking  her  in;  I 
went  with  Mrs.  Graves. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Northumberland  House.  I  apolo- 
gised, of  course,  for  your  unavoidable  absence.  I  had  a  good 
deal  of  talk  with  the  Duke ;  told  him  I  was  so  glad  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  this  splendid  house,  which  I  had  never 
done  before.  He  seemed  to  be  surprised  that  I  had  never  been 
there.  What  a  pity  that  it  should  be  destroyed,  after  having 
been  for  three  hundred  years  so  conspicuous  and  familiar  a 
feature  in  the  street  landscape,  merely  that  the  omnibuses  may 
have  another  pathway  to  the  City. 

The  fete  was  really  splendid.  The  garden,  which  is  large, 
and  reaches  down  to  the  Embankment,  was  brilliantly  illumi- 
nated. There  are  two  stories  of  reception  apartments,  with 
rooms  almost  innumerable ;  and  the  house  is  like  a  Genoese  or 

2  B  2 


372  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  XT. 

Venetian  palace,  with,  gorgeous  gildings  and  some  splendid 
pictures,  among  others  a  very  large  and  remarkable  Titian. 

Thank  heaven !  the  Shah  wasn't  there.  He  goes,  I  believe, 
Thursday,  and  there  will  be  a  sigh  of  relief  from  the  British 
public.  They  have  awfully  overdone  the  business,  I  think. 
To-day  I  dine  with  Lady  Marian  Alford,  and  in  the  evening 
there  is  the  Apsley  House  ball. 

Much  love  to  Lily,  Susie,  and  Mary,  and  a  thousand  kisses 
to  dear  little  May  from  "  Dap  pa."  I  was  much  touched  by 
her  knocking  at  my  door  and  calling  me,  as  I  learn  from 
Lily's  letter,  which  has  arrived  since  I  have  been  writing,  and 
which  I  will  answer  to-morrow. 

Ever,  my  dearest  Mary, 

Your  affectionate  and  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Wife. 

"       Brown's  Hotel, 
Tuesday  morning,  July  15th,  1873. 

Yesterday  I  went  to  the  Gladstones.  There  were  very  few 
people  at  the  luncheon — the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales 
and  Princess  Dagmar,  Duke  of  Cambridge,  and  their  atten- 
dants, the  Buccleuchs,  Granvilles,  the  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
John  Bright  and  I. 

I  had  some  talk  with  the  Princess,  and  by  an  unlucky 
accident  was  prevented  being  introduced  to  the  Czarevena.  .  .  . 

There  were  two  small  round  tables. 

The  emancipated  slaves,  who  are  singing  to  raise  money  for 
the  Negro  Fisk  University,  were  singing  Methodist  psalms  and 
hymns  during  the  whole  repast.  Grace  consisted  in  their 
singing  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  chorus.  .  .  . 

After  luncheon  the  Prince  sent  me  word  by  Colonel  Ellice 
that  he  would  be  pleased  if  I  would  come  down  into  the 
little  tent  on  the  terrace  and  smoke  a  cigar  with  him.  So 
he  gave  me  a  cigarette,  and  we  had  some  talk,  Bright  being 

also  present Some  thirty  people  came  after  luncheon, 

and  altogether  it  was  a  very  successful  little  party. 


1873.]  AVORK  ON  *  BAKNEVELD'S  LIFE.'  373 

I  spoke  to  the  leader  of  the  negro  singers  and  to  several  of 
the  men  and  women  (ex-slaves)  afterwards.  They  seemed 
pleased.  I  promised  to  send  them  a  contribution  this  morn- 
ing. .  .  . 

I  am  getting  on  swimmingly  with  the  MS.,  and  shouldn't 
be  surprised  if  I  put  it  all  into  the  printers'  hands  before  going 
to  the  Hague,  certainly  three-quarters  of  it.  ...  I  hope  you 
will  send  me  the  latest  o exploits  and  utterances  of  little  May, 
which  I  am  never  tired  of  hearing. 

Ever  your  affectionate  and  loving 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Ms  Wife. 

Brown's  Hotel, 
Wednesday  morning,  July,  1873. 

MY  DEAEEST  MARY, — I  was  very  glad  to  get  your  letter  this 
morning.  The  sight  of  your  handwriting  always  does  me  good. 
I  had  already  enclosed  you  the  Queen's  (of  the  Netherlands) 
letter.  We  can  hardly  put  off  our  visit.  .  .  .  There  is  no  reason 
for  you  to  fidget  about  me.  The  inability  to  sleep  late  in  the 
morning  I  attribute  to  the  rather  more  stimulating  character 
of  the  London  atmosphere  and  the  absence  of  shutters.  I 
have  got  nearly  to  the  end  of  my  MS.,  and  hope  to  have  it  all 
in  the  printers'  hands  before  I  leave.  I  don't  think  I  have 
been  overworking  myself,  but  I  do  hope  that  some  more 
bracing  air  for  a  few  months  will  do  something  for  me.  I  was 
delighted  with  what  you  say  about  little  darling  May,  and 
envy  you  your  visit  to  Kingston  Kussell.  I  dined  last  night 
with  the  Cowper-Temples,  the  Airlies,  Lionel  Ashleys,  Lady 
Augusta,  and  one  or  two  more.  I  went  at  half-past  ten  to  the 
Stratfords',  where  I  had  been  likewise  asked.  The  guests  were 
all  still  there — Skelniersdales,  Elchos,  Browning,  etc.  I  was 
requested  to  go  and  talk  with  Princess  Louise,  whom  I  found 
as  charming  as  ever.  She  says  she  is  to  be  all  the  autumn  and 
late  summer  at  Inveraray,  and  was  very  civil  about  hoping  to 
see  us  there.  I  don't  know  that  there  is  anything  more  to 


374  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

say,  my  dearest.  Pray  don't  worry  about  my  health.  I  am 
not  neglecting  it,  and  perhaps  will  see  Gull  before  we  leave 
for  Scotland.  I  feel  rather  weak,  but  I  am  not  overworking 
myself.  I  am  in  hopes  of  sleeping  better,  or  rather  longer, 
for  I  sleep  soundly  the  four  hours  that  I  do  get.  Good-bye, 

my  darling,  love  to  Lily,  Susie,  K ,  and  F .     Saturday 

and  Sunday  I  shall  be  at  Hatfield.1 


From  Dean  Stanley. 

July  27th,  1873. 

DEAK  ME.  MOTLEY, — I  cannot  forbear,  after  reading  your 
speech  this  morning  in  the  Times,  to  express  my  renewed 
regret  that  the  necessity  of  recovering  a  broken  engagement, 
which  I  mentioned  to  you  last  night,  should  have  deprived 
me  of  the  pleasure  of  listening  by  your  side  to  words  which  it 
would  have  been  so  great  a  pleasure  to  have  heard  with  the 
hearing  ear,  rather  than  see  in  the  retrospect  of  the  eye. 

I  do  not  speak  only  of  the  too  kind  terms  which  have 
covered  me  with  confusion,  but  of  the  exquisite  descriptions 
of  the  Abbey — and  I  must  add,  although  it  is  not  within  my 
jurisdiction,  of  Stratford-on-Avon.  I  am  sure  that  you  may 
console  yourself  for  the  painful  experiences  which  we  shared 
or  discussed  at  dinner,  for  the  successful  result.  Max  Miiller 
read  the  speech  to  us  aloud  at  breakfast  this  morning,  and  two 
strangers  who  were  present,  and  who  had  been  praising  the 
wonderful  ease  and  cadence  of  Gladstone's  eloquence,  ex- 
claimed, "  Surely  it  is  impossible  that  any  music  of  rhythm  or 
grace  of  diction  should  go  beyond  what  you  have  just  read 
to  us." 

I  trust  that  you  are  not  the  worse  for  the  effort.     I  must 

1  Immediately  after  this  letter  lie  lysis,  his  health  never  recovered.    The 

was  joined  in  London  by  his  family,  winter  of  '73-'74  was  passed  at  Cannes, 

and  within  a  day  or  two  occurred  the  where  he  had  an  attack  of  internal 

sudden  attack  of  illness  at  the  house  congestion,  and  in   the    spring    Mrs. 

of  a  friend,  from  which,  although  at  Motley  was  seized  with  typhoid  fever, 
that  time  it  was  not  considered  para- 


1874.]  PUBLICATION  OF  'BARNEVELD'S   LIFE.'  375 

again  apologise  for  my  compulsory  absence,  as  perhaps  also  for 
having  drawn  you  into  such  an  agreeable  torrent  of  converse 
when  you  were  possibly  wishing  for  the  "  grim  repose  "  which 
the  eve  of  such  an  exertion  demanded. 

Yours  sincerely, 

A.  P.  STANLEY. 


From  Dean  Stanley. 

Feb.  6th,  1874. 

DEAK  MR.  MOTLEY, — Many  were  the  sighs  heaved  over  the 
accumulated  letters  and  books  which  awaited  me  last  week 
on  my  return  from  Russia.  But  in  this  mass  there  was  one 
object  which  elicited  not  a  sigh,  but  a  cry  of  delight — the 
joyful  sight  of  the  *  Life  of  Barneveld,'  with  your  kind  in- 
scription. I  sincerely  congratulate  you  on  having  added  this 
coping-stone  to  your  great  work,  crowning  the  edifice  with  so 
noble  a  statue.  I  have  not  had  time  to  do  more  than  dive 
here  and  there  into  the  volumes,  but  I  have  already  found 
that  charming  anecdote  which  you  told  me  of  Maurice  and  the 
Armenian.  I  trust  that  you  will  feel,  as  you  read  the  pages 
in  the  more  genial  climate  of  the  South,  an  "  ampler  ether,  a 
diviner  air,"  not  only  from  the  sense  of  brighter  sun  and  sky, 
but  from  the  sense  of  labour  accomplished  and  deserved 
repose. 

We  had  a  highly  interesting  sojourn  in  Eussia,  and  we  had 
also  a  highly  interesting  passage  through  Berlin.  There  we 
saw  your  great  friend  rejoicing  as  "a  giant  to  run  his  course  " 
— full  of  kindly  remembrances  to  you  and  yours,  and  kind 
also  to  us,  partly,  I  think,  for  your  sake.  Now  we  are  again 
taking  root  in  our  Westminster  home,  as  though  we  had  never 
moved.  We  shall  hope  to  hear  good  tidings  of  your  stay  at 
Cannes. 

Yours  sincerely, 

A.  P.  STANLEY. 


376  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Cannes, 
April  17th,  1874. 

MY  DEAE  HOLMES,  —  You  must  think  me  the  most 
ungrateful  and  the  most  stupid  of  mankind  to  hint  at  the 
possibility  of  your  letters  not  being  always  the  greatest 
delight  to  me,  not  only  for  their  intrinsic  and  most  character- 
istic style,  wit  and  humour,  but  as  proofs  of  the  old  affection, 
which  I  hope  will  continue  to  exist  between  us  as  long  as  we 
are  both  above  ground.  Indeed  I  value  your  letters  most 
highly,  and  am  very  proud  as  well  as  pleased  in  receiving 
them.  But,  alas !  I  cannot  reply,  and  therefore  can  claim 
nothing  from  my  friends.  I  am  physically  a  bankrupt,  and 
as  months  roll  on,  fear  that  this  is  my  fate  for  what  remains  of 
life.  But  if  a  bankrupt,  one  does  not  like  to  be  a  beggar.  I 
receive  charity  with  gladness,  such  as  you  so  nobly  and 
spontaneously  bestow,  but  I  cannot  adopt  the  professional 
whines  and  sue  for  it.  You  are  almost  my  only  correspondent 
from  the  other  side  of  the  water,  if  that  can  be  called  corre- 
spondence which  has  only  one  leg  like  half  a  pair  of  scissors. 
You  can  hardly  doubt,  therefore,  that  when  the  general 
silence  is  broken  by  such  a  voice  as  yours,  it  can  be  other 
than  most  pleasant  to  me.  You  ask  about  my  health  so 
kindly  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  not  to  speak  a  word  to  one 
who  is  so  great  a  physiologist  as  well  as  so  warm  a  friend. 
But  I  should  find  it  difficult  perhaps  to  make  even  you 
understand  my  condition.  It  is  no  fractional  disturbance. 
Some  part  of  the  machinery  has  been  taken  away,  which  I 
suppose  cannot  be  restored.  The  brain  was  first  affected,  and 
it  telegraphed  at^  once  to  the  right  arm  and  side  and  both 
legs.  The  shock  was  instantaneous.  At  5.30  P.M.  (or  there- 
abouts), on  July  29th  last,  I  was  in  my  usual  health,  making 
an  afternoon  call  on  an  intimate  friend  of  ours.  At  5.51  say 
I  was  doubled  up,  and  ar doctor  called  for,  and  within  a  short 
time  I  was  carried  downstairs,  put  to  bed  for  ten  days,  and 
then  crawled  out,  and  have  been  crawling  about  ever  since,  in 
search  of  health,  but  find  it  not.  I  have  had  the  best  advice, 
and  it  is  the  general  (but  not  unanimous)  conclusion  that  it 


1874.]  DEATH  OF  MR.   SUMNER.  377 

was  not  apoplexy  nor  paralysis,  but  some  mysterious  stroke  on 
the  nervous  system  to  which  no  name  has  been  given.  I 
have  been  here  (by  order  of  Sir  W.  Gull)  since  the  end  of  last 
year.  I  am  not  quite  so  strong  as  when  I  left,  but  perhaps 
should  have  been  worse  but  for  the  perpetual  sunshine  and 
stimulating  dryness  of  this  atmosphere.  I  never  lost  con- 
sciousness nor  free  speech,  but  my  brain  I  feel  to  be  weakened. 
I  can  do  nothing  but  read  novels  which  I  have  read  before. 
I  cannot  write.  A  pen  is  as  heavy  as  a  sledgehammer.  I 
feel  now  as  if  I  had  been  swinging  the  hammer  of  Thor  for  a 
whole  day. 

I  could  give  no  better  proof  of  my  weakness  than  my 
inability  to  say  a  worthy  word  of  Sumner's  death.  I  have 
not  the  presumption  to  speak  of  my  personal  grief,  although 
he  honoured  me  with  a  warm  constant  friendship  which  dates 
back  very  far.  But  when  a  whole  nation  is  widowed  by  such 
a  loss,  what  is  the  sorrow  of  an  individual?  ....  That  a 
man  should  go  through  the  fiery  furnace  of  Washington 
politics,  nay,  live  in  it  half  a  lifetime,  and  be  found  at  his 
death  like  an  ingot  of  finest  gold,  is  something  for  a  country 
to  be  proud  of.  I  do  not  think  we  ever  had  exactly  such 
a  public  man,  and  it  will  be  most  difficult  to  replace  him. 
What  was  remarkable  about  him,  it  always  seemed  to  me, 
was  his  progressiveness.  As  a  scholar  he  was  always  im- 
proving, always  a  hard  student.  As  a  statesman  he  had 
always  an  ideal  goal  far  ahead  of  present  possibilities,  and 
yet  he  lived  to  see  the  nation  come  up  to  the  mark  which  had 
seemed  so  long  in  the  cloudland  of  fanaticism,  while  he  had 
again  moved  far  in  advance  of  those  original  aims.  The 
great  gift  of  keeping  his  eyes  fixed  on  something  far  away 
which  was  to  benefit  the  nation  and  the  world,  of  stopping 
his  ears  against  the  chatterings  and  howlings  which  had 
made  so  many  others  turn  back  and  so  be  changed  to  stone, 
was  never  more  marked  in  a  public  man  in  any  country, 
while  the  utter  absence  of  self-seeking  and  vulgar  common- 
place ambition  was  equally  remarkable.  His  loss  is  irrepar- 
able to  the  country  and  to  his  personal  friends.  To  the  very 
last  moment  in  the  Senate,  to  be  released  just  as  he  was 


378  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XL 

putting  the  armour  off  in  which  he  had  won  a  life-long  battle, 
was  after  all  Euthanasia.  Good-bye.  You  must  excuse  my 
inability  to  write,  and  pray  believe  that  you  cannot  send  me 
too  many  letters.  With  love  from  all  to  all. 

Affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 


Boston, 
May  18th,  1874. 


I  know  you  will  want  to  hear  something  about  the  friend 
that  we  have  lost  lately,  but  I  hardly  remember  what  I  have 
already  written.  I  am  sure  at  any  rate  that  we  had  not  had 
Schurz's  '  Eulogy.'  It  was  a  remarkably  satisfactory  and  suc- 
cessful performance,  happy  in  its  delineation  of  the  grand 
features  of  Sumner's  character,  picturesque  in  its  details  of 
scenes  in  which  he  figured,  written  in  miraculously  good 
English  for  a  foreigner,  and  delivered  in  a  very  impressive  way. 
I  dined  with  him  and  his  wife  and  daughter  at  Mrs.  Lodge's 
after  the  '  Eulogy,'  and  passed  a  very  pleasant  evening.  Of 
course,  let  me  say  en  passant,  Mrs.  Lodge  always  has  something 
affectionate  to  say  about  you  and  your  family  whenever  I  meet 
her.  Your  estimate  of  the  loss  the  nation  has  sustained  in 
Sumner's  death  does  not  seem  in  the  least  an  exaggerated  one. 
I  should  say  that  the  general  verdict  would  concur  very  much 
with  your  opinion. 

I  dropped  my  pen  here,  and  went  out  to  see  Turner  Sargent, 
who  has  greatly  improved,  and  is  looking  forward  to  Nahant 
(where  he  has  taken  Charles  Amory's  house  again),  with  hopes 
of  really  enjoying  it.  He  has  turned  out  a  phoenix  in  full 
feather  since  the  great  fire,  finding  himself  much  better  off 
since  the  rebuilding  than  he  was  before.  Well,  on  my  way, 
whom  should  I  meet  but  Mrs.  Lodge  herself,  and  we  stood 
there  on  the  side-walk  talking  about  you  seven  minutes  by 
the  clock.  She  wanted  to  know  all  that  I  could  tell  her,  and 
has  not  quite  given  up  the  hope  of  seeing  you  at  Nahant  this 
summer.  I  judge  from  what  your  relatives  tell  me  that  the 


1874.]  BOSTON  GOSSIP.  379 

journey  ings  and  the  voyage  would  be  more  than  you  would 
feel  equal  to  just  now,  but  if  you  could  come  I  need  not  say 
how  glad  your  many  friends  would  be  to  see  you  and  your 
family  again.  Coming  home  from  Turner  Sargent's,  William 
Amory  joined  me,  and  wanted  to  know  all  I  could  tell  him 
about  you.  I  always  find  him  good  company — in  some  ways 
better  than  anybody  else,  for  he  has  known  Boston  on  its 
fairer  side  longer,  as  well  as  better,  than  almost  any  other  person 
I  can  talk  with  easily — has  a  good  memory,  talks  exceedingly 
well,  and  has  a  pleasant,  courteous  way,  which  is  exceptional 
rather  than  the  rule  among  the  people  that  make  up  New 
England  society. 

Yesterday  I  went  out  to  Cambridge,  and  called  on  Mrs.  Agassiz 
— the  first  time  I  have  seen  her  since  her  husband's  death.  She 
was  at  work  on  his  correspondence,  and  talked  in  a  very  quiet, 
interesting  way  about  her  married  life.  What  a  singular  piece 
of  good  fortune  it  was  that  Agassiz,  coming  to  a  strange  land, 
should  have  happened  to  find  a  woman  so  fitted  to  be  his  wife, 
that  it  seems  as  if  he  could  not  have  bettered  his  choice  if  all 
womankind  had  passed  before  him  as  the  creatures  filed  in 
procession  by  the  father  of  the  race  !  I  have  been  too  to  see 
Hillard,  and  seen  him  for  the  first  time.  He  is  quite  crippled, 
cannot  move  his  arm,  and  walks  with  a  crutch,  but  talked  not 
without  a  certain  degree  of  cheerfulness.  I  was  told  that  he 
had  improved  very  much  within  the  last  few  weeks.  Another 
invalid  whom  I  visit  now  and  then  is  old  Dr.  Bigelow.  He  is 
now  eighty-seven  years  old,  and  I  think  rather  proud  of  saying 
so.  ... 

Since  I  wrote  I  have  got  through  my  winter  course  of 
lectures,  and  enjoy  my  release  from  almost  daily  duties,  which 
I  like  well  enough,  and  which  probably  make  me  happier  than 
I  should  be  without  them.  I  begin  now,  since  the  new  order 
of  things  came  in  with  the  new  President,  in  October,  and 
lecture  five  and  four  times  a  week  until  the  beginning  of  May. 
It  used  to  be  only  four  months.  But  even  in  the  interval  of 
lectures  I  do  not  get  free  from  a  good  deal  of  work  of  one 
kind  and  another.  I  have  done  enough  to  know  what  work 
means,  and  should  think  I  had  been  a  hard  worker  if  I  did  not 


380  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES,  [CHAP.  XI. 

see  what  others  have  accomplished.  I  can  never  look  on  those 
great  histories  of  yours  and  think  what  toil  they  cost,  what 
dogged  perseverance  as  well  as  higher  qualities  they  imply, 
without  feeling  almost  as  if  I  had  been  an  idler.  But  I  sup- 
pose it  is  not  worth  one's  while  to  think  too  much  about  what 
he  might  have  done  or  might  have  been.  Our  self-determina- 
tion is,  I  suspect,  much  more  limited  than  we  are  in  the  habit 
of  considering  it.  Schopenhauer  says  that  if  a  cannon  ball  in 
its  flight  suddenly  became  conscious,  it  would  think  it  was 
moving  of  its  own  free  will.  I  must  not  let  my  metaphysics 
take  away  the  merit  of  your  labours,  but  still  I  think  you  were 
in  a  certain  sense  predestinated,  and  forced  by  some  mysterious 
and  invisible  impulse  to  give  Holland  a  history  and  make 
yourself  generally  a  name  in  the  world  of  letters. 

I  have  not  yet  read  the  *  Life  of  Barneveld,'  and  cannot  do 
justice  to  it  until  I  have  finished  up  some  things  that  have 
been  waiting  to  be  done  and  will  not  be  put  off  any  longer. 
But  I  think  I  shall  have  a  special  enjoyment  in  it,  not  merely 
because  it  is  one  of  your  pieces  of  historical  tapestry,  but  for  a 
reason  I  will  tell  you — I  happened  to  see  on  a  London  catalogue 
which  was  sent  me  the  name  of  a  book,  which  you  no  doubt 
know  well  enough,  and  which  may  be  of  small  account  in  your 
valuation,  *  Meursi,  Athenae,  Batavae.'  It  had  something 
more  than  fifty  portraits  of  professors  in  the  university,  to- 
gether with  plans  of  Leyden  and  the  manner  of  its  relief, 
etc.  I  have  become  so  familiar  with  the  features  of  Gomarus 
and  Arminius,  of  William  of  Orange,  of  Grotius  and  Joseph 
Scaliger  and  the  rest,  that  I  am  all  ready  to  read  about  the 
times  in  which  they  lived.  I  took  down  your  volume  with  the 
siege  of  Leyden  in  it,  and  read  it  with  infinite  delight,  having 
the  plan  of  my  little  quarto  volume  before  me.  I  began  to 
understand  as  I  never  did  before  the  delight  which  must  have 
blended  itself  with  your  labours  in  bringing  to  the  light  the 
old  story  of  that  little  land  of  heroes,  and  my  own  Dutch  blood 
moved  me  to  a  livelier  sense  of  gratitude  to  you  for  all  you 
had  done  to  rescue  that  noble  past  from  oblivion  than  I  had 
ever  felt  before. 


1874.1  BIRTH  OF  A  GRANDSON.  381 

To  liis  Son-in-laiv. 

Hotel  Bristol, 

May  23rd,  1874. 

MY  DEAR  ALGY, — Only  a  line  to  wish  you  and  dear  Mary 
joy  with  all  my  heart  at  the  arrival  of  "  Conny."1  I  was  alone 
when  the  telegram  was  brought,  the  others  having  gone  out 
shopping.  It  arrived  from  Dorchester  to  the  "  Hotel  Bristol  "  in 
about  three  hours,  so  that  we  knew  of  the  happy  event  soon 
after  noon.  I  trembled  for  a  moment  before  opening  it,  feeling 
sure  that  it  was  from  Dorchester,  then  set  my  teeth  by  a 
desperate  effort,  tore  it  open,  and  was  rewarded  in  an  instant. 
I  am  afraid  I  was  a  little  spoony  by  myself  for  a  moment,  but 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  telling  them  all  myself — Lily  and 
Susie  first.  Tell  Mary  that  her  mother  knew  it  all  by  the 
expression  of  our  faces  without  a  word  being  said,  and  of  course 
began  to  shed  torrents  of  tears  in  an  open  carriage  in  the 
middle  of  the  Place  Yendome — where  luckily  there  is  no 
other  fountain.  We  are  hoping  for  a  letter  from  you  this 
evening  with  full  particulars. 

They  all  thought  it  unreasonable  that  a  minute  description 
was  not  sent  by  telegraph ;  but  I  observed  that  at  sixpence  a 
word  or  so  that  might  have  come  expensive.  So  they  are 
willing  to  wait  until  this  evening  to  know  how  many  fingers 
and  toes  the  baby  has.  The  prejudices  of  society  are  in  favour 
of  ten,  I  believe.  All  send  every  possible  message  of  good 
wishes  and  congratulations  to  Mary  and  yourself. 

Affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Naworth  Castle,2 
August  3Qth,  1874. 

MY  DEAREST  MARY, — I  want  to  write  you  a  little  letter, 
all  to  yourself,  although  my  hand,  I  regret  to  say,  remains 

1  Mr.  Motley's  first  grandson,  Richard      father. 

Brinsley  Sheridan,  so  called  after  his          2  Staying  with  Mr.  and  the  Hon.  Mrs. 
grandfather    and    great  great  grand-      George  Howard. 


382  MOTLEY'S   LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

somewhat  unsteady  and  uncertain,  and  writing  is  very  fatiguing. 
However,  as  five  weeks  ago  I  could  not  write  better  than  dear 
little  May,  I  have  no  reason  to  complain,  and  I  don't.  I  am 
getting  on  very  well,  and  as  rapidly  as  I  had  any  reason  to 
expect,  and  have  made  very  good  progress.  My  right  hand 
and  arm  are  still  very  lame,  and  I  can't  say  very  much  in 
praise  of  my  pedestrian  talents.  But  all  this  will  soon  pass 
away.  We  have  been  passing  a  week  here  most  delightfully. 
Nothing  can  exceed  everybody's  kindness,  and  the  old  castle 
is  most  picturesque  and  very  comfortable. 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Mrs.  Tait  went  away 
this  morning  after  staying  two  or  three  days.  He  had  a  severe 
paralytic  stroke  three  years  ago,  as  you  may  remember,  and 
hovered  between  life  and  death  for  a  long  time.  Now  he  seems 
almost  robust  and  well,  and  is  certainly  very  kind  and  agree- 
able. We  have  also  had  the  new  Bishop  of  Winchester  and 
Mrs.  Browne  for  some  days.  They  went  yesterday. 


To  Baroness  Meyer  de  Eotliscliild. 

5,  Seamore  Place,  Curzon  Street, 

Thursday  Afternoon,  January,  1875. 

MY  DEAK  BAKONESS, — I  am  not  able  to  write  much,  but  I 
must,  with  my  own  hand,  thank  you  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  for  your  words  and  acts  of  kindness  in  this  my  bitter 
anguish.1 

I  shall  never  forget  whose  tender  hands  sent  the  flowers 
which  were  strewn  upon  her  grave — the  grave  where  half  of 
myself  lies  buried. 

And  I  will  also  thank  your  daughter  most  truly. 

God  bless  you  both. 

Your  affectionate 

J.  L.  M. 

1  Mrs.  Motley  died  Dec.  31,  1874. 


1875.]  DEATH  OF  MKS.  MOTLEY.  383 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Frarnpton  Court,  Dorchester, 
March  29th,  1875. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — I  must  try  to  write  a  single  line  to 
thank  you  for  your  letters — all  of  which  were  very  grateful  to 
me.  I  must  also  thank  you  for  that  most  touching  and 
tender  tribute  to  her  in  the  paper  which  moved  me  deeply. 
You  can  hardly  conceive  of  the  intense  emotion  which  every 
word  of  appreciation  of  her  causes  in  my  heart.  I  think  but 
little  ot  myself.  Indeed  it  almost  seems  as  if  there  were  no 
such  person  now — so  completely  was  my  identity  in  many 
ways  blended  with  hers.  The  loss  of  that  almost  life-long 
companionship  with  one  much  nobler,  purer,  wiser,  and  truer 
than  I  could  ever  hope  to  become,  has  left  me  a  wreck  in 
which  I  can  take  but  little  interest.  I  am  thankful  for  the 
many  expressions  of  sympathy  with  my  misery  which  I 
receive,  for  I  know  how  warmly  and  tenderly  they  are  meant, 
but  I  find  the  only  possible  alleviations  in  hearing  her 
virtues  and  high  qualities  acknowledged  by  those  who  had 
known  her  best  and  longest.  All  that  you  say  is  most  truly, 
delicately,  and  affectionately  said.  But  you  could  not  know, 
none  but  myself  and  God  only  ever  knew,  all  that  she  was. 
There  is  hardly  any  one  to  whom  I  should  so  much  long  to 
speak  of  her  as  I  should  to  yourself.  You  knew  her  so  well 
and  so  long,  and  she  had  such  true  affection  and  admiration 
for  you,  that  I  should  feel  myself  justified  in  speaking  in  a 
way  that  to  many  would  seem  exaggeration.  Yet  I  know 
that  I  could  not  if  I  tried  even  to  do  justice  to  the  highest 
qualities  of  her  character,  and  I  should  not  be  afraid  of 
speaking  of  them  to  you.  She  stands  before  me  now  almost 
transfigured.  Every  hour  she  becomes  to  me  more  and  more 
a  kind  of  religion.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  simple  and 
unwavering  religious  faith  with  whose  aid  she  confronted 
death  with  such  unaffected  courage  and  simplicity,  and  bore 
with  such  gentle  patience  the  prolonged  tortures  of  a  most 
painful  malady,  during  which  her  chief  thoughts,  as  they  had 
been  all  her  life,  were  for  others  rather  than  herself,  was  all 


384  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

delusion  and  mockery.  And  yet  I  am  compelled  to  struggle 
daily  with  doubt  which  often  turns  to  despair,  and  to  cling  to 
hopes  which  vanish  almost  as  soon  as  they  form  themselves. 
I  expect  to  come  home  in  June  for  a  few  months,  and  trust 
that  I  may  often  have  the  chance  of  talking  with  you.  I 
cannot  write  of  her,  for  my  physical  weakness  makes  it  almost 
impossible,  but  I  should  like  to  speak  of  her  to  one  who  would 
at  least  not  wonder  at  the  kind  of  worship  I  feel  for  her ;  and 
I  should  like  to  speak  to  you,  and  hear  you  speak  of  themes 
which  you  as  a  thinker  and  poet,  a  physiologist,  a  man  of 
heart,  and  my  life-long  friend  are  so  singularly  competent  to 
discuss.  I  am  not  strong  enough  to  say  more  to-day.  I  hope 
you  will  write  to  me  as  often  as  you  are  able.  Kindest 
regards  to  your  wife. 

Always  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Mr.  Carlyle. 

5,  Cheyne  Eow,  Chelsea, 
April  19th,  1875. 

DEAR  MOTLEY, — Your  letter  of  Saturday  last  touches  me 
to  the  very  heart ;  not  for  many  years  have  I  had  any  word 
addressed  to  me  which  stirs  up  so  many  deep  and  tender  feel- 
ings. Alas  !  I  know  too  well  what  depths  of  suffering  you  are 
struggling  with ;  how  dark  and  solitary  is  all  the  universe  to 
you — suddenly  eclipsed  in  this  manner ;  and  how  vain  is  all 
human  sympathy,  how  impossible  all  human  help.  Courage, 
courage,  nevertheless  !  Time  and  pious  patience  do  bring 
relief  by  slow  degrees.  Oblivion  can  never  come,  should  never 
come ;  but  the  piercing  vehemency  of  these  feelings  will  at 
length  subside  into  composure,  and  only  a  voice  of  love,  in- 
finitely mournful,  yet  infinitely  beautiful,  be  the  requiem  of 
those  we  have  lost  for  this  world.  Immortality  itself,  with  all 
its  infinitudes  of  splendour,  if  there  were  to  be  no  meeting 
again,  would  be  worth  nothing  or  even  less  to  us.  As  Goethe 
says,  "  Wir  heissen  euch  hoffen" 

It  is  a  real  regret  to  me  that  you  are  not  to  be  in  London 


1876.]  DEATH  OF  MRS.  MOTLEY.  385 

"  in  a  week  or  two,"  that  there  is  no  chance  of  my  seeing 
you  for  the  present;  I  feel  for  my  own  behoof,  too,  as  if  there 
were  no  man  with  whom  I  might  have  so  much  of  genial, 
profitable,  and  cordial  discourse  as  even  with  yourself,  when 
bodily  illness  permitted  you.  I  was  too  procrastinative  and 
inert  while  you  were  still  in  my  neighbourhood ;  but  it  is  a 
fixed  purpose  that  should  a  new  possibility  be  offered,  I  will 
make  a  far  more  effectual  use  of  it.  God  bless  you,  help  you, 
and  be  with  you  always. 

Believe  me  ever,  if  it  be  the  least  comfort  to  you, 

Yours,  with  deep  sympathy,  affection,  and  respect, 

T.  CARLYLE. 


To  Mrs.  W.  W.  Wadsworth,  America. 

New  Lodge,  Windsor  Forest, 
January  3rd,  1876. 

MY  DEAK  EMMELINE, — You  wrote  me  a  most  kind  and  touch- 
ing letter  exactly  a  month  ago.  I  should  have  answered  it 
much  sooner  were  writing  as  easy  to  me  as  it  once  was.  But 
the  physical  discomfort  which  seems  to  be  in  the  arm  (although 
I  know  very  well  that  the  arm  is  a  liar,  and  the  real  culprit  is 
the  brain)  has  made  me  the  worst  correspondent  in  the  world. 
I  used  to  tell  my  beloved  Mary  that  she  would  lose  all  her 
friends,  if  she  persisted  in  the  absolute  abstention  from  all 
letter  writing,  which  came  over  her  in  the  later  days  of  her 
life.  But  she  felt  instinctively  perhaps  that  it  was  impossible 
for  her  to  lose  a  friend.  No  one  who  ever  loved  her  could 
forget  her,  however  silent  in  absence  she  might  be,  and  cer- 
tainly she  never  allowed  a  friend  to  slide  out  of  her  heart  with 
any  lapse  of  time.  No  one  knows  that  better  than  you,  dear 
Emmeline,  to  whom  she  was  always  so  fondly  attached.  I  did 
not  mean  to  speak  of  her  at  all  this  morning,  but  as  she  is 
always  present  with  me,  it  was  natural  that  she  should  join 
with  me  in  these  New  Year's  greetings  to  you.  All  that  you 
say  of  Lily  gives  me  great  pleasure.  She  has  certainly  been 
a  most  devoted  and  loving  daughter  to  her  mother  and  to  me, 
and  I  sincerely  hope  and  honestly  believe  that  her  future 

VOL.  n.  2  c 


386  MOTLEY'S .  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

happiness  is  as  safe  as  can  be  expected  in  this  world,  and  that 
is  saying  as  much  and  hoping  as  much  as  ought  to  be  said  or 
hoped.  For  certainly  happiness  is  not,  and  was  never  intended 
to  be,  the  object  of  human  life.  I  was  expressing  this  thought 
to  Carlyle  the  other  day,  and  he  replied  "  Certainly,  if  to  be 
happy  in  this  world  was  the  reason  for  man's  being  put  here, 
the  Maker  of  it  is  a  wretched  blunderer." 

Meantime,  I  am  contriving  as  well  as  may  be  to  accommo- 
date myself  to  my  new  circumstances,  and  I  must  say  that  no 
human  being  could  be  more  loving  and  more  devoted  to 
another,  than  my  dear  Susie  is  to  me. 

We  haven't  yet  fixed  on  a  scheme  of  life,  except  temporarily. 
We  are  staying  for  a  few  days  with  our  old  and  kind  friend, 
Madame  Van  de  Weyer,  and  there  are  some  agreeable  people 
here  or  coming  to-day,  among  others  the  Princess  Louise  and 
Lord  Lome,  whom  I  always  like  to  meet.  She  is  singularly 
sympathetic  and  attractive,  and  was  always  very  kind  to  my 
dear  Mary.  We  shall  make  one  or  two  more  visits,  and 
then,  until  Easter,  we  have  taken  a  small  house  or,  rather,  the 
best  part  of  it,  in  Clarges  Street.  Our  house  in  Seamore 
Place  is  to  be  sold.  After  Easter,  when  the  London  season 
begins,  in  which  turmoil  I  never  mean  to  take  part  again, 
having  neither  the  health  nor  the  heart  for  it,  Susie  and  I  go 
down  to  Dorsetshire,  to  stay  a  couple  of  months  with  Mary, 
in  the  quietest  and  most  secluded  manner  possible.  And  I 
am  going  to  try  if  I  can  do  a  little  head-work,  or  to  satisfy 
myself  that  the  hole  made  in  my  skull  three  years  ago  is 
beyond  mending.  "  Not  as  broad  as  a  barn  door,  or  as  deep 
as  a  well,  but  it  will  do,"  I  am  afraid.  At  any  rate,  we  shall 
have  the  pleasure  of  being  with  Mary,  and  enjoying  the 
society  of  my  little  eldest  granddaughter,  who  is  certainly  the 
most  dainty  and  exquisite  little  creature,  to  my  thinking,  in 
the  universe.  But  this  you  will  think  my  dotage.  I  am 
quite  ashamed  of  the  egotism  of  this  letter.  If  I  should  pick 
all  the  I's  out  of  it,  the  whole  would  vanish  into  thin  air. 

I  hope  the  air  of  Cannes  suits  you.  That  climate  is  cer- 
tainly a  very  positive  one.  It  either  suits  or  it  doesn't.  It 
is  also  a  treacherous  one  to  those  with  weak  chests.  That 


1876.]  THE  MONOTONY  OF  LECTURING.  387 

mistral  runs  you  through  the  lungs,  even  while  the  sun  is 
grinning  in  your  face,  as  it  does  all  day  long.  It  is  funny  to 
think  of  the  sun.  That  orb  has  not  been  seen  here  for  weeks, 
and  we  have  a  daily  deluge.  I  hope  you  see  a  good  deal  of 
the  dear  Harris's.  They  are  most  charming  people.  I  love 
them  all  dearly,  and  wish  I  could  look  in  upon  them  to- 
morrow. Pray  greet  them  affectionately  from  Susie  and  me. 
Has  Herbert  inveigled  them  into  his  yacht,  for  I  don't  think, 
for  an  Admiral's  daughters,  they  are  specially  nautical  ? 

Do  you  know  Dr.  Frank  ?  If  so,  pray  give  him  and  Lady 
Agnes  our  warmest  remembrances.  He  is  a  most  superior 
man,  intellectual  and  sympathetic,  besides  being  a  very  skilful 
and  devoted  physician.  You  don't  say  anything  of  your 
health,  but  I  hope  that  the  sunshine  has  done  you  good,  and 
I  believe  that  the  climate  must  suit  you.  Susie  joins  me  in 
most  loving  remembrances,  and  with  kindest  regards  to 
Herbert,  believe  me 

Always,  dear  Emmeline, 

Your  very  affectionate  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Boston, 
May  8th,  1876. 

MY  DEAK  MOTLEY, — I  am  most  devoutly  thankful  that  my 
seven  months'  lectures  are  at  last  over,  and  I  am  gradually 
beginning  to  come  to  myself  like  one  awakening  from  a  trance 
or  a  fit  of  intoxication.  You  know  that  the  steady  tramp  of  a 
regiment  would  rock  the  Menai  Bridge  from  its  fastenings, 
and  so  all  military  bodies  break  the  step  in  crossing  it.  This 
reiteration  of  lectures  in  even  march,  month  after  month,  pro- 
duces some  such  oscillations  of  one's  mind,  and  one  longs  after 
a  certain  time  to  break  up  their  uniformity.  If  they  kept  on 
long  enough,  Harvard  would  move  over  to  Somerville.  Your 
letter  of  March  26th  gave  me  great  pleasure.  It  relieved  me 
from  the  fear  that  you  were  condemned  to  the  disuse  of  your 
eyes,  which  had  seemed  to  me  under  the  circumstances  a  trial 

2  c  2 


388  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  X 

too  hard  to  think  of.  I  am  rejoiced  to  find  that  you  can  read, 
even  though  you  have  to  use  glasses — as  I  have  had  to  do 
these  twenty-six  years.  I  was  pleased,  too,  to  know  that  you 
were  thinking  of  a  little  possible  work  for  the  summer.  If  it 
is  in  place  of  another  visit  to  America,  Boston,  Nahant,  Home, 
I  should  personally  regret  it  more  than  I  can  tell  you,  for  I 
count  the  hours  I  passed  with  you  last  summer  among  the 
sweetest,  the  holiest,  the  dearest,  and,  in  one  sense,  the  happiest 
of  all  my  social  life.  It  seems  strange  to  speak  of  this  happi- 
ness when  I  saw  you  so  often  with  all  the  freshness  of  grief 
coming  over  you.  But  these  are  the  hours  when  friendship 
means  the  most,  when  we  feel  that  we  come  nearer  than  at 
any  other  time  to  our  intimates ;  and  the  sense  that  we  are, 
perhaps,  lightening  another's  burden,  makes  even  the  com- 
monest intercourse  a  source  of  satisfaction.  Besides  this,  you 
must  not  forget  that  you,  whose  presence  from  your  natural 
gifts  was  always  so  peculiarly  agreeable  to  me,  have  known 
the  world  in  such  a  way  that  your  conversation  cannot  help 
being  interesting  to  one  who  has  lived  so  purely  provincial  a 
life  as  I  have.  So  when  your  sorrow  came  over  you,  my  heart 
was  for  the  time  full  of  it,  and  when  you  for  a  little  while  were 
beguiled  into  forgetfulness  and  talked  with  the  life  of  earlier 
times,  I  was  sure  of  being  pleased  with  hearing  a  hundred 
things  nobody  else  could  tell  me.  I  have  told  you,  and  I 
must  tell  you  again  and  again,  that  my  life  has  run  in  a 
deeper  channel  since  the  hours  I  spent  in  your  society  last 
summer.  They  come  back  to  me  from  time  to  time  like  visi- 
tations from  another  and  higher  sphere.  No,  I  never  felt  the 
depths  and  the  heights  of  sorrow  so  before,  and  I  count  it  as 
a  rare  privilege  that  I  could  be  with  you  so  often  at  one  ot 
those  periods  when  the  sharpest  impressions  are  taken  from 
the  seal  of  friendship. 

You  may  be  sure  that  I  copied  every  word  you  said  about 
Dana,  and  sent  it  to  him.  He  was  greatly  pleased  with  your 
remembrance  and  with  what  you  had  said. 

We  have  had  three  new  Boston  books  since  I  have  written, 
I  think — Ticknor's  Life  and  Letters,  eminently  readable,  much 
sought  for;  a  new  Life  of  Hamilton,  by  my  wife's  nephew, 


1876.]  FAILING  POWERS.  389 

J.  T.  Morse,  junior ;  and  within  a  few  days  Tom  Appleton's 
*  Nile  Journey,'  which  I  find  very  pleasant  and  lively,  much 
more  like  his  talk  than  the  other  little  book.  I  dined  with 
Longfellow  at  Mr.  Fields's  the  other  evening.  He  seemed 
pretty  well,  but  still  complained  somewhat.  Lowell  was  at 
my  house  the  other  day ;  he  has  been  complaining,  but  is  now 
better. 

Affectionately  yours, 

0.  W.  H. 

Do  not  forget  my  kind  remembrances  to  your  children.  My 
wife  will  not  let  me  close  this  letter  without  a  postscript  of 
kind  remembrance. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

5,  Seamore  Place,  Mayfair, 
May  26ta,  1876. 

MY  DEAE  HOLMES, — I  do  not  like  to  give  in  and  acknow- 
ledge myself  incapable  of  responding  by  a  word  or  two  to  your 
kind  and  interesting  letter  (Feb.  18th),  which  I  need  not 
assure  you  gave  me  great  pleasure.  How  often  I  look  back  to 
your  eagerly  looked  for  visits  at  Nahant.1  I  hardly  thought 
it  possible  for  me  to  add  to  my  past  anything  of  sadness  and 
regret,  but  I  do  constantly  remember  those  long  conversations 
by  the  shores  of  the  infinite  sea,  which  is  so  perpetual  a  living 
symbol  of  that  invisible  infinite,  to  whose  mournful,  and  some- 
times inspiring  and  gladdening,  voice  we  are  always  listen- 
ing. A  word  about  my  condition,  because  to  you,  as  a  physical 
and  mental  pathologist  and  philosopher,  I  know  I  should 
always  have  some  interest  as  a  case,  even  if  we  were  not  tried 
and  life-long  friends.  My  failing  eyesight  has  little  to  do 
with  the  eyes.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  this  is  no  paradox. 
The  same  little  clot  on  the  brain  is  the  subtle  thief  that  has 
stolen  the  strength  out  of  my  right  arm,  and  the  vigour  from 
my  thought,  and  now  the  clearness  from  my  vision.  At  least 

1  Mr.  Motley  went  to  America  for  passed  many  weeks  at  the  house  of  an 
the  last  time  in  the  summer  and  autumn  intimate  friend,  Mrs.  J.  E.  Lodge,  at 
of  1875,  where  he  and  his  daughters  Nahant,  a  seaside  resort  near  Boston. 


390  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

this  is  the  opinion  of  Gull  and  of  the  oculist  Baeder,  a  German, 
who  has,  on  the  whole,  as  high  a  reputation  as  any  one  here. 
But  the  thing  is  not  so  very  bad,  and  with  a  peculiar  kind  of 
spectacles  which  he  has  recommended  to  read  with  (I  never 
read  with  glasses  before,  having  always  been  near-sighted, 
and  having  always  bragged  of  it),  I  shall  do  very  well.  Do 
not  consider  me  an  egotist  for  these  details,  for  you  will  find 
them  curious  I  am  sure.  Do  not  believe  me  inclined  to 
complain,  or  to  pass  what  remains  of  life  in  feeble  lamen- 
tations. When  I  think  of  all  the  blessings  I  have  had, 
and  of  the  measure  of  this  world's  goods  infinitely  beyond 
my  deservings  that  have  been  heaped  upon  me,  I  should 
despise  myself  if  I  should  not  find  strength  enough  to 
bear  the  sorrows  which  the  Omnipotent  has  now  chosen  to 
send. 

We  are  still  quite  ignorant  as  to  the  fate  of  Dana's  nomina- 
tion in  the  Senate.  Most  devoutly  do  I  hope  he  is  coming. 
It  is  better  than  anything  I  dared  to  hope  for.  Tell  him  when 
you  see  him  that  he  can  scarcely  realise  how  intense  was  the 
satisfaction  with  which  his  appointment  was  hailed  by  the 
best  and  most  influential  people  here,  and  how  universal 
the  delight  expressed  by  all  the  leading  organs  of  public 
opinion.  But  I  have  not  the  power  yet  to  write  much  objec- 
tively. A  good  many  people  come  to  see  me,  and  I  have 
dined  out  at  small  dinners  with  very  intimate  friends.  I  do  it 
from  a  sense  of  duty,  especially  to  my  daughters,  but  it  is 
rather  a  pain  than  a  distraction  to  myself.  If  you  will  pardon 
one  other  bit  of  egotism,  I  will  say  that  I  was  pleased  a  few 
weeks  ago  by  reading  in  an  English  newspaper  that  I  had 
been  elected  a  member  of  the  French  Institute.  I  had  never 
thought  of  it  or  spoken  about  it  to  a  living  soul,  and  did  not 
know  that  an  election  was  to  be  held.  The  notification  of  my 
having  been  chosen  was  sent  to  Boston,  so  that  it  was  slow  in 
reaching  me.  I  was  made  a  "  Correspondant,"  or  Correspond- 
ing Member,  fifteen  years  ago,  but  this  is  full  membership  to 
the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences,  in  which  there 
are  but  seven  foreigners  in  all.  I  was  glad  to  know  that  I  was 
still  supposed  to  be  alive,  although  I  am  but  too  conscious 


1876.]  THE   QUEEN   OF   THE  NETHERLANDS.  391 

that  there  are  many  far  more  deserving  of  the/honour  than  I 
pretend  to  be.1 

I  had  better  conclude  this  before  I  fall  into  any  more  of  it. 
I  wish  that  Lowell  had  accepted  the  appointment  to  Peters- 
burg, not  for  his  own  sake  so  much  as  that  it  would  have  been 
good  for  us  to  have  his  name  on  our  Fasti.  I  hope  we  are  not 
to  be  again  disappointed  in  Dana's. 

When  you  see  Susan,  will  you  tell  her  that  we  are  all  very 
well,  and  that  I  mean  very  soon  to  answer  her  kind  letter  ? 

Farewell,  and  with  my  love  to  your  wife  and  all  yours, 
Believe  me  most  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

House  in  the  "Wood,  "  Huis  ten  Bosch,"  the  Hague, 
August  18th,  1876. 

MY  DEAE  HOLMES, — We  came  in  a  steamer  from  Harwich 
to  Eotterdam,  and  so  by  an  hour's  rail  to  this  spot,  a  week 
ago.  We  shall  return  by  the  same  route  (about  fourteen 
hours)  to  London  at  the  beginning  of  next  week.  The 
Huis  ten  Bosch,  where  we  are  staying,  is  the  summer  palace 
or  villa  of  the  Queen  of  this  country,  and  we  came  only 
for  the  purpose  of  making  her  a  visit.  You  have  often 
heard  me  speak  of  her  in  terms  of  deepest  admiration,  re- 
spect, and  affection.  I  have  known  few  persons  in  my  life 
more  deserving  of  these  feelings.  She  is  very  accomplished. 
Half  a  dozen  languages  are  to  her  like  her  mother  tongue. 
She  is  singularly  accurate  in  modern  European  history,  and 
very  familiar  with  most  important  personages  who  have 
played  a  part  in  politics,  letters,  and  science  in  our  day, 

1  The    official    notification    of   the  a  note  confirming  the  rumour, 

honour  referred  to  was  contained  in  a  By  a  further  accident  the  official 

letter  from  M.  Mignet,  which  had  gone  note,  directed  and  sent  to 

to  America,  and  the  first  information  "  Monsieur  Motley  (Lothrop), 

received  was  therefore  contained  in  a  Membre  de  1'Institut  de  France,"1 

paragraph  in  the  Pall  Matt  Gazette.  A  was  t»y  mistake  the  one  intended  for 

friend  (Lady  Arthur  Kussell)  volun-  M.  Minghetti,  who  was  elected  at  the 

teered  to  inquire  as  to  the  correctness  same  time,  and  who  doubtless  received 

of  the  paragraph,  and  wrote  Mr.  Motley  the  one  addressed  to  Mr.  Motley. 


392  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  XI. 

from  actual  acquaintance,  or  in  several  previous  generations 
from  intimate  and  intuitive  study  and  reflection.  She  has  a 
noble  presence,  and  has  had  very  considerable  beauty.  Her 
manner  is  almost  perfection,  combining  the  innate  grace 
and  dignity  belonging  to  her  station  with  perfect  simplicity, 
absence  of  vanity  and  egotism,  and  most  abundant  sympathy. 
Full  of  charity,  constantly  occupied  with  thoughts  of  others, 
forgetful  of  self,  and  deeply  interested  in  all  great  subjects 
which  occupy  the  attention  of  the  more  elevated  intellects. 
I  hardly  know  why  I  am  speaking  so  fully  of  her  at  this 
moment,  except  that  I  am,  as  I  have  often  been,  domesticated 
under  her  roof,  and  because  I  always  feel  when  I  see  her  that 
it  will  be  for  the  last  time.  Her  health  is  shattered.  She 
herself  considers  that  her  life  hangs  by  a  thread.  She  had  an 
alarming  illness  early  in  this  year,  and  the  doctors  have  no 
doubt  that  she  has  disease  of  the  heart.  She  is  much  changed 
in  the  three  years  which  have  elapsed  since  I  saw  her.  More 
than  and  most  of  all  I  am  attached  to  her  because  of  her 
undying  and  unabated  affection  for  my  beloved  Mary.  No 
one  on  this  side  of  the  water  more  truly  loved  her,  and  more 
finely,  accurately,  and  warmly  appreciated  that  great  and 
noble  nature  than  she  does. 

This  house  is  swallowed  up,  literally  embowered,  in  the 
beechen  forest  which  surrounds  the  Hague.  It  is  about  two 
miles  from  the  town,  and  in  this  forest  I  used  to  walk  with  her 
almost  daily  during  our  residence.  You  may  judge  whether 
or  not  she  is  actually  visible  to  me  at  every  turn  in  every 
path.  But  I  will  forswear  this  egotism  of  grief.  Even  you 
will  begin  to  think  me  unmanly,  although  I  hardly  need  say 
that  I  scarcely  speak  or  write  to  any  one  else  as  I  am  doing  to 
you,  and  this  occasional  relief  is  almost  a  necessity.  It  is  not 
easy  to  make  a  very  interesting  letter  from  this  distance. 
The  place  is  full  of  memories  for  me,  and  besides  there  are  a 
few  acquaintances  and  friends  whom  we  are  very  glad  to  see 
again.  It  is  the  dead  season  here,  but  within  twenty  minutes' 
drive  is  the  North  Sea,  with  the  cool  and  comfortable  bathing- 
place  of  Scheveningen ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  land 
and  water  could  throw  themselves  into  forms  so  absolutely 


1876.]  THE   "HUIS   TEN  BOSCH."  393 

different  from  each  other  as  Scheveningen  and  Nahant.  Here 
there  is  nothing  but  one  long  mathematically  straight  line  of 
sea  beach,  running  fifty  miles  without  cove,  rock,  indentation, 
nor  any  shadow  of  turning.  The  Crown  Prince  and  Princess 
of  Germany,  with  their  children,  have  been  staying  there. 
The  parents  were  gone  before  we  came,  but  the  young  ones, 
five  or  six,  remain. 

Yesterday  we  went  with  the  Queen  to  dine  (at  2  P.M.)  with 
her  uncle  (or  rather  the  King's  uncle),  Prince  Frederic,  a 
most  excellent  old  man,  at  a  very  beautiful  summer  chateau, 
to  which  three  of  these  German  princesses,  from  sixteen  to 
six,  and  one  little  prince  of  seven  or  eight,  were  invited — all 
merry  and  natural  and  browned  in  the  sun,  and  furnished  with 
English  and  French  and  German  governesses  and  bonnes  and 
conscience-keepers.  It  was  pleasant  enough,  and  the  dejuner 
dinatoire  was  worthy  of  the  imperial  guestlings.  I  am  afraid 
you  have  had  enough  of  my  babble.  Otherwise  I  would  talk 
of  a  fine  portrait  of  Jean  de  Witt,  and  another  of  his  brother 
and  fellow-victim,  Cornelius,  which  hang  over  my  writing- 
table.  The  house  which  John,  the  great  Pensionary,  lived  in 
at  the  time  they  were  both  murdered  is  the  same  we  lived  in 
for  two  years.  It  is  now  the  residence  of  the  Queen's  youngest 
son,  Prince  Alexander. 

This  House  in  the  Wood  is  the  especial  residence  and  pro- 
perty of  the  Queen,  and  she  lives  here  in  perfect  liberty,  and 
has  those  she  likes  to  dinner  and  as  her  guests,  the  King  never 
coming  here,  and  being  always  absent  from  the  Hague  in  the 
summer. 

You  will  forgive  my  prosing  so  much  about  the  country  of 
your  maternal  ancestors.  Do  write  to  me  soon.  You  know 
how  much  I  value  your  letters,  and  what  comfort  they  are 
to  me. 

Both  my  daughters  join  me  in  kindest  remembrances  to  your 
wife  and  yourself. 

Affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


394  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  XI. 


To  his  Second  Daughter. 

Allonheads,  Allondale,1  Northumberland. 
Friday,  September  1st,  1876. 

MY  DAKLING  MAKY,— Your  letter  of  the  30th  to  Susie  was 
received  just  now,  and  I  said  I  should  like  to  write  to  you 
instead  of  her  doing  so.  ... 

This  is  a  small  but  pretty  and  comfortable  house,  standing 
1400  feet  above  the  sea  level — the  highest  gentleman's  house 
in  England.  It  is  surrounded  by  vast,  wild-looking  moors, 
abounding  in  grouse,  which  the  young  guests  staying  here 
slaughter  faithfully  every  day,  and  filled  beneath  by  vast 
mines  filled  with  lead.  .  .  .  The  air  is  pure,  stimulating  and 
bracing.  To-day,  after  three  days  of  storm,  wind,  and  rain, 
we  have  a  bright  clear  sky  and  a  sharp,  almost  frosty  air.  We 
are  going  to  lunch  out  of  doors,  somewhere  in  the  moors, 
although  Beaumont  advised  sticking  to  the  dining-room, 
opening  all  the  doors  and  windows  so  as  to  establish  a  thorough 
and  chilling  draught,  which  would  answer  the  purpose  as  well. 

I  like  being  here.     Lady  Margaret  is  always  so  kind  and 

agreeable.     K is  a  very  sweet  intelligent,  and  attractive 

little  girl. 

Good-bye,  my  dear  child. 


To  the  Duchess  of  Argyll. 

Isel  Hall,  Cockermouth, 
October  I3th,  1876. 

MY  DEAK  DUCHESS, — I  was  not  able,  as  I  intended,  to  write 
a  line  the  day  after  we  arrived  here  to  tell  you  once  more  how 
very  glad  I  was  to  have  been  able  to  make  the  journey  to 
Inveraray,  and  to  satisfy  myself  with  my  own  eyes  that  the 
condition  of  your  own  health  was  so  much  better  than  I  had 
ventured  to  hope 

This  is  a  lovely  place,  with  almost  as  much  natural  charm 
and  artistic  grace  as  the  beautiful  chatelaine  herself.  I  like 

1  Belonging  to  Wentworth  Beaumont,  Esq. 


1876.]  THE  EASTERN  QUESTION.  395 

Mr.  Wyndham  very  much  also.  We  have  taken  drives  to 
Bassenthwaite  Lake  and  Cockerrnouth  Castle,  and  I  dare  say 
may  make  one  or  two  more  excursions  into  the  pretty  and 
famous  lake  country  before  we  leave  next  Monday  for  London. 
Mr.  E.  Doyle  is  here,  who  has  been  making  some  beautiful 
sketches  at  Drumlanrig,  and  I  believe  that  some  young  people 
are  coming  back  with  our  host  and  hostess,  who  went  last 
night  to  the  county  ball  at  Carlisle. 

You  may  suppose  that  the  politics  of  this  house  are  some- 
ivhat  different  from  those  at  Inveraray. 

But  as  the  great  Eastern  matter  is  to  me,  an  outsider,  a 
very  wide  and  general  one,  and  I  should  think  swelling  every 
day  into  dimensions  beyond  the  control  of  diplomats,  I  like  to 
hear  everything  that  can  be  said  about  it.  I  entirely  agree  with 
the  Duke  and  yourself  and  Mr.  Gladstone  as  to  the  Turks,  but 
I  can't  put  much  faith  in  temporary  measures,  and  feel  as 
though  the  fifth  act  of  the  five  centuries'  tragedy  has  got  to  be 
played  out  before  long.  Awful  for  the  spectators,  still  more 
so  for  the  actors !  And  I  hope  that  the  spectacle  may  be 
postponed  a  little  longer,  but  it  is  almost  hoping  against 
hope. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Duchess, 

Always  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


To  Dean  Stanley. 

5,  Seamore  Place,  Mayfair, 
November  10th,  1876. 

MY  DEAK  DEAN, — I  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  tell  you 
adequately  how  very  grateful  I  am  for  the  pleasure  and  solace 
which  I  have  been  deriving  from  your  third  volume  on  the 
Jewish  Church.  As  I  think  I  mentioned  to  you  one  day,  if 
you  had  written  the  volumes  expressly  for  my  own  behalf,  it 
could  not  have  been  better  adapted  for  the  purpose.  For  it 
deals  with  subjects  which  exceedingly  occupy  my  mind,  and 
abounds  with  suggestions,  explanations,  and  sympathetic  aid 
towards  the  solution  of  problems  and  mysteries  which  press 


396  MOTLEY'S  LETTEES.  [CHAP.  XI. 

more  and  more  upon  the  thoughts  of  those  whose  life's  even- 
ing is  closing  in  dark  shadows  and  sorrows.  You  and  I  have 
both  been  struck  almost  simultaneously  by  that  irremediable 
blow  which  drives  the  soul  forth  into  the  vast  and  unknown 
void,  and  causes  it  to  rebel  at  times  at  the  bars  which  must 
restrain  it  so  long  as  those  mortal  conditions  last.  I  have 
been  reading  the  book  very  slowly,  for  my  mind  wanders  after 
attempting  for  a  time  to  grasp  great  subjects,  and  lam  obliged 
to  take  rest.  How  glad  I  am  that  your  mind  and  body  are 
both  so  vigorous  and  fresh,  notwithstanding  the  great  calamity 
which  God  has  sent  to  you,  and  that  you  are  not  only  able  to 
find  some  relief  in  work,  but  furnish  relief  to  others.  How 
acutely  you  must  have  felt  in  the  painful  but  sacred  circum- 
stances attending  your  work  that  laborare  est  orare. 

The  delicate  and  masterly  manner  in  which  you  have  traced 
out  the  connection  between  the  ideas  of  the  one  invisible  God 
revealing  Himself  at  many  intervals  of  space  and  time,  and 
through  differing  races,  to  the  highest  of  what  we  call  human 
intellects ;  and  the  idea  of  a  future  life  under  unknown  and 
unimaginable  conditions,  is  to  me  most  striking.  Intense 
love  seems  to  me  to  annihilate  death,  and  love  is  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Christian  revelation.  But  it  is  not  only  for  this 
steady  sequence  of  thought  on  the  one  great  subject  that  I 
have  taken  so  much  pleasure  in  your  volume.  I  have  learned 
in  it  a  great  deal  on  the  historical  themes  in  which  I  especially 
desired  instruction,  and  have  thus  learned  from  one  in  whose 
teachings  I  feel  absolute  confidence.  The  story  of  the  capti- 
vity, the  return,  the  restitution,  of  the  records  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  especially  the  history  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
Asmonean  dynasty,  are  full  of  deep  interest  and  abound  in 
passages  and  pictures  of  remarkable  power  and  splendour.  I 
would  venture  especially  to  allude  to  the  description  of  Baby- 
lon and  of  its  destruction,  to  the  most  heroic  and  pathetic 
presentment  of  the  great  achievements  of  Judas  Maccabaeus 
and  his  brethren  ;  above  all  to  the  tragic  story  of  Herod  and 
the  august  and  noble  Mariamna.  How  much  I  envy — no,  non 
equidem  invideo,  miror  magis — the  transparent  purity  of  the 
style  in  which,  however  tempted  by  enthusiasm  or  intensity  of 


1876.]  LONDON  IN  WINTER.  397 

feeling,  you  have  always  the  reserve,  the  temperance  which,  as 
Hamlet  says, "  doth  give  the  torrent  smoothness." 

But  I  beg  your  pardon  for  writing  so  much  in  what  was 
intended  as  a  simple  letter  of  thanks.  Meantime,  my  dear 
Dean,  believe  me,  with  deep  regard, 

Very  sincerely  your  friend, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


To  Ms  Eldest  Daughter. 

5,  Seamore  Place, 
Friday  evening,  December,  1876. 

.  .  .  The  quantity  of  rain  is  appalling.  There  is  little 
chance  of  any  kind  of  loafing  here,  and  won't  be  until  they 
organise  some  kind  of  boats.  That  gondola  of  London,  as  the 
great  Dizzy  calls  a  hansom,  is  entirely  inadequate  to  the 
occasion.  I  have  seen  scarcely  a  soul.  I  paddle  sometimes 
to  the  club,  and  see  a  lot  of  fogies  in  a  comatose  state.  I 
rarely  find  an  acquaintance.  Sometimes  the  voice  of  old 
Abram,  I  hear  it  complain  from  the  whist  room,  which  is 
refreshing.  I  hope  you  admire  the  beauty  of  my  handwriting 
to-day.  It  is  because  I  am  using  a  swan  quill,  one  of  six 
Melbury  ones  which  Mrs.  Wyndham  has  just  sent  me  as  a 
New- Year's  gift,  with  a  very  agreeable  letter.  .  .  .  May  is 
perfectly  well,  and  diviner  than  ever.  She  interrupts j  me 
every  minute  or  two,  and  she  is  running  a  railroad  between 
the  drawing-room  and  library,  and  insists  on  my  taking 
tickets  for  "  London  station."  .  .  .  Your  account  of  the  dinner 
at  the  Kings'  reminds  me  of  the  ballet  they  used  to  give  so 
much  at  Vienna,  '  Les  Willis.'  I  am  glad  you  saw  those  dear, 
jolly  people.  Tuesday  we  go  to  the  Van  der  Weyers  for  a 
week. 


5,  Seamore  Place, 

December  Uth,  1876. 


MY  DEAREST  LILY, — I  was  glad  to  see  by  your  letterj  to 
Susie,  received  this  morning,  that  you  are  well  and  happy, 
and  enjoying  yourself.  I  had  a  letter  from  the  Queen  of  the 


398  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XL 

Netherlands,  in  which  she  speaks  very  kindly  of  you  and  your 
marriage,  and  alludes  to  the  letter  she  had  received  from  you. 
I  had  also  a  letter  from  W.  Story  to  the  same  effect.  .  .  . 
Tuesday,  I  went  at  about  half-past  six  to  call  at  Kent  House. 
Miss  Hosmer  came  rushing  down  with  a  message  to  collar  me  and 
retain  me  to  dinner.  I  had  been  prevented  from  dining  there 
the  day  before.  We  had  a  most  pleasant  little  scratch  dinner 
with  Lady  Ashburton  at  a  little  after  seven.  That  hour  was 
because  Miss  Baring  and  two  or  three  others  of  the  party  were 
going  to  the  Geographical  Society  meeting.  The  two  or  three 
others  were  one  of  the  Arctic  expedition  officers,  Conybeare  by 
name,  and  his  father  and  mother.  Lady  Marian  Alford  also 
came  to  dinner.  After  the  Arctic  explorers  went  off,  we  had 

a  pleasant  evening,  H and  I  being  the  only  gentlemen. 

Lady  Marian  had  been  painting  some  fans — one  for  the  Queen. 
She  was  persuaded  to  send  over  to  her  house  for  them.  They 
are  wonderful.  I  stood  aghast,  and  felt  convinced  that  Fra 
Angelico  must  have  really  done  them.  Lots  of  little  Cupids 
or  angels'  heads,  it  doesn't  signify  much  which,  lovely  trellises 
of  grape  vines  and  allegorical  groups  of  various  kinds,  with 
bits  of  landscape.  Truly,  I  never  saw  anything  so  exquisite. 

.  .  .  H was  full  of  fun  as  usual,  so  that  there  could  hardly 

have  been  found  better  company  in  the  world  than  I  stumbled 
upon  that  evening.  Yesterday  I  went  with  Mary  and  Susie 
to  take  May  and  Toto  to  Hengler's  Circus.  May  was  quietly 
and  deeply  interested,  especially  by  the  "  beautiful  fairy  on 
horseback  in  a  golden  dress,"  as  she  expressed  herself — said 
fairy  being  a  battered  kind  of  harridan  on  an  awful  screw  of 
a  horse.  Toto  wished  the  clown  might  be  removed  and  the 
geegees  come  back.  I  rather  liked  the  clown.  He  was  the 
very  same  I  used  to  see,  when  I  was  a  small  boy,  at  the  Boston 
circus — the  same  face,  the  same  voice,  the  same  jokes.  The 
circus  is  at  least  a  conservative  institution,  quite  proof  against 
progress.  .  .  .  God  bless  you,  my  dear  child.  .  .  . 


1877.]  THE  EASTEEN  QUESTION.  399 

To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

Ampthill  Park,  Ampthill, 
January  llth,  1877. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — You  will  like  to  know  that  we  ac- 
complished our  arduous  journey  to  this  place  in  perfect 
safety,  and  arrived  in  time  for  dinner.  In  the  evening,  we 
saw  dear  Lady  Wensleydale  for  a  few  minutes.  She  has  had  a 
bad  attack  of  gout  in  the  knee,  and  has  suffered  a  good  deal  of 
pain,  and  seemed  rather  low,  although  glad  to  see  us.  Froude 
and  his  daughter  came  in  the  same  train  with  us.  There 
are  no  other  guests,  but  Charles  Howard  is  expected. 

I  read  Harcourt's  speech  with  great  admiration  and  sym- 
pathy. I  am  glad  that  I  could  agree  with  every  word  of  it.  I 
knew,  of  course,  that  it  would  be  very  eloquent,  forcible,  and 
interesting,  but  I  had  not  supposed  that  I  should  be  so  ex- 
actly in  accord  with  all  his  views.  I  don't  think  it  was  at  all 
superfluous  for  him  to  slay  the  slain,  for  these  Turco-Dizzy 
people  require  a  good  deal  of  killing,  and  I  am  very  glad  that 
he  has  shown  up  in  such  masterful  fashion  the  pitiful  alterna- 
tive of  bumptiousness  and  backing  down  which  has  charac- 
terised the  Tory  Government  during  the  past  year.  .  .  .  Our 
own  political  affairs  look  better.  Even  the  Tribune  seems  in- 
clined to  think  it  bad  for  the  Eepublican  party  if  Hayes 
should  be  "  counted  in "  against  the  general  sense  of  the 
country.  The  people  themselves  are  behaving  with  a  magni- 
ficent calm,  and  one  can't  help  feeling  proud  of  them.  I  don't 
believe  there  is  the  slightest  possibility  of  fighting,  and  it  is 
generally  agreed  that  Congress  will  settle  the '  question,  and 
that  their  decision,  whatever  it  is,  will  be  acquiesced  in 
quietly. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

Brighton, 
January  30th,  1877. 

MY  DEAE  HOLMES, — I  have  three  letters,  delightful  ones, 
as  your  letters  always  are,  to  acknowledge.  The  very  last  was 
one  regarding  Lily's  marriage,  and  it  gave  her  and  her 


400  MOTLEY'S   LETTEES.  [CHAP.  XI. 

husband  much  pleasure.  I  wish  you  could  have  witnessed 
the  marriage,  for  to  an  imaginative,  poetical,  and  philoso- 
phical nature  like  yours,  the  scene  would  have  been  highly 
suggestive.  It  was  strictly  private,  on  account  of  deep 
mourning  in  both  families.  It  was  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
because  Dean  Stanley  is  a  very  dear  and  intimate  friend  of 
ours  and  also  of  Harcourt's.  No  one  was  invited,  except  one 
or  two  nearest  relatives,  and  it  was  necessary  courteously  to 
decline  all  applications  from  representatives  of  the  press. 
The  ceremony  was  performed  in  Henry  VII.'s  gorgeous  and 
beautiful  chapel,  dimly  lighted  by  a  rain-obscured  December 
sun.  The  party  stood  on  the  slab  covering  Edward  VI/s 
tomb,  and  at  the  Dean's  back  was  the  monument  in  which 
James  I.  had  his  bones  placed  along  with  those  of  Henry  VII., 
the  first  Stuart  fraternising  in  death  with  the  first  Tudor. 
The  tombs  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  and  of  Elizabeth  were  on 
either  side.  As  there  were  but  very  few  people  sprinkled 
about  in  sombre  clothing,  one  could  hardly  realise  amid  all 
this  ancient  dust  and  ashes  that  a  modern  commonplace 
marriage  was  going  on.  Afterwards  the  wedding  party  went 
through  the  long-drawn  aisle  and  beneath  the  fretted  vault  to 
the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  where  Henry  IV.  died  : — 

"How  call  ye  the  chamber  where  I  first  did  swoon? 
'Tis  called  Jerusalem,  my  noble  lord. 
In  that  Jerusalem  will  Harry  die." 

You  remember  all  this,  and  would  have  thought  of  it  as  I  did, 
as  one  was  signing  and  witnessing  the  marriage  in  the  dim 
and  dusty  old  apartment,  now  a  kind  of  record  chamber  to 
the  Abbey.  The  business  was  soon  dispatched.  The  couple 
then  drove  down  to  Strawberry  Hill,  once  the  famous  ginger- 
bread Gothic  castle  of  Horace  Walpole,  and  now  the  property 
of  Lady  Waldegrave,  Harcourt's  aunt,  who  lent  it  to  them  for 
a  part  of  their  honeymoon. 

We  have  had  rather  a  decousu  winter,  Susie  and  I.  It  was 
a  great  wrench  parting  from  Lily,  who  has  been  my  constant 
and  always  interesting  companion  for  so  long.  At  the  same 
time  I  always  felt  a  kind  of  remorse  at  the  idea  of  her 
devoting  her  life  to  me,  and  now  I  feel  a  happiness  in  her 


1877.]  THE  TUECO-RUSS1AN   WAR.  401 

happiness.  Our  establishment  in  Seamore  Place  is  broken 
up,  and  the  house,  endeared  to  me  by  the  saddest  and 
tenderest  memories  of  my  life,  is  sold,  and  is,  I  believe, 
soon  to  be  pulled  down,  to  make  room  on  its  site  and  that  of 
the  adjoining  house  for  a  very  large  one.  I  am  rather  pleased 
with  this  idea  than  with  that  of  seeing  others,  perhaps  ac- 
quaintances, living  in  what  was  her  last  home  on  earth. 
We  have  been  passing  a  few  days  for  change  of  air  with  some 
old  friends,  and  very  kind  ones,  Lord  and  Lady  Minto.  He  is 
brother  to  Sir  Henry  Elliot,  the  Ambassador  at  Constantinople, 
of  whom  you  have  read  much  in  the  papers  of  late,  who  also  is 
a  very  old  friend  and  colleague  of  mine.  There  was  never  a 
more  straightforward  and  conscientious  man  in  diplomacy  or 
out  of  it.  Lady  Minto  is  one  of  the  most  intellectual  and 
agreeable  of  women.  You  may  suppose  we  talk  a  good  deal 
here  of  the  Eastern  Question.  My  opinions  and  tendencies 
and  beliefs  are  all  on  the  Eussian  side.  At  least  I  feel  con- 
vinced that  this  extraneous  and  foreign  substance  called 
Turkey,  which  has  been  so  long  lodged  in  the  European  consti- 
tution, has  got  to  be  eliminated  before  there  can  be  health  in 
Europe.  Also  I  believe  that  Kussia  must  ultimately  succeed 
to  Turkey,  who  can  assimilate  what  Turkey  could  not.  This, 
however,  the  English  of  all  parties  refuse  to  see,  and  I  believe, 
after  all  said  and  done,  they  would  rather  fight  with  Kussia 
than  see  her  in  Constantinople. 

We  have  been  making  some  other  visits,  among  others  a 
very  agreeable  one  to  Lord  Lome  and  Princess  Louise,  at 
their  pretty  villa  near  Tunbridge  Wells.  Your  son  Wendell 
knows  him  very  well,  and  he  often  speaks  of  him,  as  they  do 
all,  and  of  his  visit  to  Inveraray,  and  your  own  name  is  as 
familiar  as  household  words.  He  has  literary  and  scientific 
tastes  and  pursuits,  a  good  deal  of  character,  and  a  refined 
mind;  and  the  Princess  is  exceedingly  sympathetic,  merry, 
light-hearted,  and  as  little  guindee  as  it  is  possible  to  be. 
She  has  decided  artistic  talents,  draws,  paints,  and  models, 
and  does  your  likeness  in  a  few  sittings  very  successfully. 

Nobody  could  be  a  kinder  or  more  graceful  hostess 

We  return  to  London  the  day  after  to-morrow.     Our  address 

VOL.  II.  2   D 


402  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

until  April  1st  is  11,  Clarges  Street,  Piccadilly,  a  temporary 
habitat  until  we  can  suit  ourselves  more  permanently.  I  have 
found  the  surf,  sea  air,  and  sea  sounds  bracing  and  sympa- 
thetic. It  reminds  me  a  little,  very  little,  of  the  magnificent 
scenery  of  Nahant,  of  our  long,  to  me,  delightful  walks  and 
talks  there.  Not  that  the  scenery  here  is  anything  but 
straight  and  tame  and  insipid,  with  an  esplanade  three  miles 
long,  a  pebbled  beach,  and  no  rocks  nor  caves.  But  there  has 
been  a  gale  of  wind  and  some  surf,  and  the  air  is  bracing, 
although  mild  at  times  as  if  it  were  the  south  of  France.  So 
much  can  warm  equatorial  currents  do  for  these  favoured 
islands,  while  we  in  New  England  are  left  out  in  the  cold. 
Farewell  for  the  present.  Give  my  love  to  your  wife,  and 
Believe  me  always  affectionately  yours, 

J.  L.  M. 


From  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 


Boston, 
March  Uth,  1877. 


MY  DEAR  MOTLEY, — I  should  have  acknowledged  and 
thanked  you  for  your  letter  of  the  30th  of  January,  but  for 
many  unusual  distractions.  I  cannot  and  I  need  not  tell  you 
what  singular  enjoyment  I  had  in  reading  that  letter.  It 
is  too  good  a  letter,  too  striking  a  one  for  any  particulier  to 
receive  and  appropriate.  The  account  of  your  daughter's 
wedding  was  like  a  passage  from  a  stately  drama.  It  was,  is,  I 
ought  to  say,  enough  to  thrill  any  American  to  his  marrow,  to 
read  of  those  whom  he  has  known  so  long  and  well  among  the 
common  scenes  of  our  not  over  poetical  existence,  enacting 
one  of  the  great  scenes  of  this  mortal  life  in  the  midst  of  such 
shadows,  treading  over  such  dust  in  an  atmosphere  of  historic 
immortality.  I  lived  the  occasion  all  over,  and  I  do  sincerely 
pity  the  New  England  Major  or  the  Western  Congressman 
who  has  not  enough  of  imagination  or  reverence  for  the  past 
to  be  kindled  into  something  like  poetical  enthusiasm,  as  much 
as  Johnson  would  pity  the  man  whose  patriotism  did  not  grow 


1877.]  DEATH  OP  MB.  TUBNEB  SABGENT.  403 

stronger  at  Marathon,  or  whose  piety  did  not  warm  among  the 
ruins  of  lona. 

Oh  this  shallow  soil  of  memory  on  which  we  live,  we  scratch 
it,  and  we  find — what  ?  The  Indian's  shell-heaps  and  stone 
arrowheads.  It  would  be  worth  a  year  of  my  life  (if  I  had  a 
good  many  to  spare  one  from)  to  walk  once  more  under  the 
high  groined  arches  of  Westminster  Abbey.  I  never  expect 
to  see  England  or  Europe  again  ;  but  it  is  something  to  say  I 
have  lived  and  looked  upon  Alps,  cathedrals,  and  the  greatest 
works  of  the  greatest  artists. 

We  have  lost  our  good  friend,  and  your  good  friend,  Turner 
Sargent.  You  know  how  precarious  his  health  has  been  of 
late.  He  has  been  suffering  from  a  disease  of  the  valves  of 
the  heart,  which  obliged  him  to  lead  the  life  of  an  invalid,  and 
yet  allowed  him  to  enjoy  much  and  give  much  enjoyment  to 
others.  He  got  chilled  during  a  visit  of  kindness  to  an  old 
friend  just  out  of  town,  and  was  attacked  with  inflammation 
of  the  lungs,  to  which  his  enfeebled  constitution  yielded  in 
the  course  of  less  than  a  week.  He  left  the  world  very  peace- 
ably, keeping  up  his  courteous  and  even  cheerful  bearing  all 
through,  and  with  only  occasional  turns  of  severe  suffering.  I 
enclose  a  brief  notice  of  him,  which  I  wrote  and  published  in 
the  Daily  Advertiser.  Henry  Sargent  wanted  some  copies  of 
it,  and  I  had  them  struck  off  at  the  Eiverside  Press.  The 
mourning  border  was  the  printer's  addition.  I  do  not  know 
that  it  is  an  improvement. 

My  daughter  has  lived  most  happily  with  her  husband,  and 
is  left  very  lonely  by  his  death  ;  but  she  will  still  be  able  to 
keep  the  home  which  he  loved  to  beautify  for  her,  and  her 
friends  are  all  kindness.  She  is  young  and  elastic  in  tempera- 
ment, and  I  hope  may  find  occupation  and  happiness,  as  much 
as  she  has  a  right  to  look  for. 

Believe  me  always  affectionately  yours, 

0.  W.  H. 


404  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

To  Mr.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 

London, 
March  22nd,  1877. 

MY  DEAR  CABOT, — Your  last  letter  was  more  than  six 
months  ago  (llth  July,  1876),  and  I  did  not  think  that  one 
so  interesting  and  instructive  would  have  remained  so  long 
without  a  reply. 

But  before  I  say  another  word  on  any  other  topic,  let  me 
tell  you  that  my  object  to-day  is  to  beg  you  to  express  to 
your  wife  and  her  mother  my  deep,  true,  and  tender  sympathy 
with  them  in  the  great  affliction  which  has  befallen  them  in 
the  death  of  Admiral  Davis. 

It  is  only  within  two  or  three  days  that  I  learned  the  sad 
event  in  the  newspapers,  for  I  have  had  no  letters  from  home 
or  some  time. 

I  grieve  most  truly  for  you  all,  for  I  know  full  well  what  he 
was,  and  although  he  has  been  permitted  to  attain  to  a  ripe 
age,  and  to  round  into  fulness  a  bright,  noble,  and  consistent 
career,  yet  these  reflections  cannot  mitigate  the  pangs  of  such 
a  loss.  The  longer  such  a  man  lives,  the  more  he  must 
become  endeared  to  those  nearest  and  dearest  to  him. 

All  that  friends  can  do  is  to  utter  words  of  sympathy,  and 
of  full  appreciation  of  his  virtues  and  high  qualities.  His 
public  career  is  part  of  our  history.  To  be  highly  distin- 
guished both  in  the  practical  and  scientific  part  of  the  noble 
profession  to  which  his  life  was  devoted,  and  which  he 
adorned,  is  much.  But  it  was  permitted  to  him  to  write  his 
name  in  bright  letters  on  the  most  trying,  eventful,  and  heroic 
page  of  our  history,  and  there  it  must  remain  as  long  as  we 
have  a  history. 

Death  comes  to  all,  but  when  it  comes  to  end  a  life  which 
has  been  filled  full  of  honourable  actions,  of  devotion  to  duty, 
of  chivalrous  inspiration,  our  deepest  regrets  are  rather  for  the 
survivors  than  for  the  dead.  For  myself,  I  shall  always  be 
glad  that  I  had  the  great  pleasure  of  seeing  him  in  the  midst 
of  his  family  at  ISTahant  during  the  summer  of  1875,  which  I 
passed  among  you  all. 


1877.]  DEATH  OF  ADMIRAL  DAVIS.  405 

He  was,  I  am  proud  to  say,  my  friend  from  early  years,  and 
he  is  associated  with  many  of  the  brightest  and  tenderest 
remembrances  of  my  life.  He  was  the  valued  friend  of  one 
dearer  to  me  than  life,  and  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  think  of 
him  or  your  mother-in-law  without  thinking  of  her. 

And  he  always  seemed  to  me  the  same  man — in  youth  and 
in  advanced  years — with  the  same  simple,  truthful,  genial, 
sympathetic,  unaffected  presence,  thoughtful  and  appreciative 
of  others,  undemonstrative  of  himself,  unchanged  after  he  had 
achieved  so  much  from  what  he  was  when  his  career  was  just 
beginning. 

I  shall  always  cherish  his  memory ;  and  once  more  I  beg 
you  to  say  all  that  can  be  said  on  my  part  of  true  feeling  to 
Mrs.  Davis  and  her  daughters. 

I  will  say  no  more.  I  reserve  to  another  day  a  letter  which 
I  mean  to  write  in  answer  to  yours  very  soon,  I  hope  you  will 
write  to  me  again  whenever  you  can.  Your  letters  are  always 
very  interesting  to  me.  Give  my  best  love  to  your  mother, 
in  which,  as  well  as  to  your  wife,  Susie  begs  to  join. 
And  believe  me 

Sincerely  your  friend, 

J.  L.  MOTLEY. 


To  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes. 

11,  Clarges  Street,  London, 
March  23rd,  1877. 

MY  DEAR  HOLMES, — Strange  to  say,  I  am  writing  you  a 
second  letter  before  I  have  received  an  answer  to  my  last. 
This  is  the  first  time  for  long  years,  that  I  have  not  had  a 
debt  of  two  or  three  letters  to  pay  you  when  I  took  up  the 
pen.  And  I  wish  that  it  was  not  so  sad  an  occasion  which 
moves  me  to  write,  for  I  wish  to  express  as  strongly  and  as 
sincerely  as  I  can  how  thoroughly  I  feel  with  your  daughter 
and  with  you  all  on  the  great  affliction  which  has  come  upon 
her  in  the  death  of  her  husband.  It  is  but  very  recently  that 
I  read  of  the  event  in  the  Boston  Advertiser,  and  directly 
afterwards  I  read  the  touching  and  discriminating  portraiture 


406  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

of  him  which  could  have  come  from  no  hand  but  your  own. 
I  receive  so  few  letters  from  Boston,  few  or  rather  no  friends 
being  so  magnanimous  as  to  keep  up,  like  yourself,  a  kind  of 
unilateral  correspondence  with  me,  that  I  might  have  remained 
still  longer  in  ignorance  of  your  daughter's  bereavement  had 
I  not  been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  regularly  the  "  daily."  I 
hope  you  will  kindly  be  the  interpreter  of  all  our  warm 
sympathies  for  a  grief  which  can  hardly  be  less  poignant 
because  the  event  has  so  long  been  almost  daily  and  even, 
I  suppose,  hourly  expected.  The  eternal  absence  is  so  immea* 
surably  different  from  the  suffering  present. 

For  myself,  I  have  an  honest  right  to  claim  a  portion  of 
your  sorrow.  Indeed,  I  cannot  remember  when  I  did  not 
know  him  intimately  and  esteem  him  much.  Turner  was  one 
of  my  own  earliest  friends.  We  must  have  been,  I  think, 
nearly  of  an  age,  and  I  never  in  my  life  called  him  by  anything 
but  his  Christian  name.  He  always  seemed  to  me  exactly  the 
same  individual  from  childhood  to  manhood,  and  so  on  into 
the  shadows  of  advancing  years.  He  is  associated  with  many 
of  my  most  tender  remembrances,  with  many  scenes  which  I 
look  back  upon  with  a  regret  which  must  always  be  mingled 
with  buried  joy,  for  my  dear  Mary  was  very  fond  of  him, 
and  among  the  letters  from  many  friends  which  came  to  me 
at  the  epoch  which  has  for  ever  darkened  my  life,  one  received 
from  him  was  among  the  most  touching  and  the  most  genuine. 
Words  of  mere  sympathy  and  attempted  consolation  are  of 
little  use  in  the  bitterness  of  grief,  but  affectionate  and  sincere 
tributes  to  the  virtues  and  fine  qualities  of  such  a  man  as 
Turner  Sargent  from  those  who  knew  him  can  hardly  be  un- 
welcome. There  never  was  a  more  agreeable  companion,  kind, 
courteous,  sympathetic,  merry,  and  amusing  at  will,  even  in 
the  pain  and  anxieties  of  broken  health — forgetful  of  self, 
thoughtful  of  others,  refined  and  delicate  in  taste,  apprecia- 
tion and  sentiment,  with  the  varied  knowledge  which  comes 
from  extensive  travel  and  observation  of  the  world,  and  with 
a  genuine,  straightforward,  affectionate  nature  he  had  a  right 
to  be  called  by  that  one  word  which  means  so  much  and 
which  can  be  said  in  no  language  but  our  own,  but  which  has 


1877.]  ENGLISH  PARTY  POLITICS. 

been  so  promiscuously  used  as  to  be  in  danger  of  losing  its 
deep  meaning,  "  gentleman."  You  have  already  said  it,  but 
even  if  I  had  not  read  what  you  wrote,  I  am  quite  sure  that  I 
should  have  instinctively  used  it  in  attempting  to  characterise 
our  beloved  friend.  I  will  say  no  more  to-day,  except  to  beg 
you  once  more  to  give  my  most  sincere  and  sympathetic 
remembrances  to  your  daughter  and  your  wife. 

Always  your  true  friend, 

J.  L.  M. 


To  Us  Eldest  Daughter. 

Sunday,  April  Qth,  1877. 

....  I  should  like  to  hear  as  much  as  I  can  about  politics, 
and  am  grateful  to  you  for  all  you  have  written,  which  always 
interests  me  deeply,  for  I  like  to  know  what  Harcourt  thinks 
and  intends.  I  am  a  good  deal  puzzled  by  English  party 
politics,  and  in  my  own  ignorance  now  should  be  the  more 
ready  to  forgive  (if  I  had  not  long  since  done  so)  the  gross 
ignorance  and  hatred  manifested  from  1861  to  1864  by  many 
parliamentary  chiefs  in  regard  to  America.  My  opinions 
about  the  Eastern  Question  are  purely  academic  and  histo- 
rical, and  therefore  quite  superfluous,  even  if  I  could  write 
them.  To  me,  the  appalling  danger  for  Europe  and  Christen- 
dom is  a  war  of  England  with  Eussia,  and  that  seems  the  drift 
and  the  howl  just  now. 

God  bless  you  ;  love  to  Harcourt ;  all  well  here. 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Htmstanton  Hall,  Kings  Lynn,  Norfolk,1 
April  llth,  1877. 

MY  DEAREST  LILY, — I  am  your  debtor  for  three  very  agree- 
able letters.  Our  days  were  passed  at  Bulstrode  in  perfect 
tranquillity,  a  condition  which  suits  me  more  and  more,  and  I 

1  The  home  of  H.  le  Strange,  Esq. 


408  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

am  quite  content  when  I  am  not  called  on  to  make  any 
exertion,  bodily  or  mental.  The  Duke  is  very  good  company, 
as  you  know,  caustic,  not  unsympathetic,  one  with  whom  one 
can  talk  about  anything  and  everything  without  fear  of 
shocking  some  ponderous  prejudice.  The  Duchess  is  as  witty 
as  ever,  and  very  kindly  to  us  all.  That  branch  of  the 
Sheridans  certainly  retains  its  monopoly  of  beauty.  Miss 

G is  as  pretty  as  the  two  elder  sisters,  and  as  for 

-,  she  seems  to  me  likely  to  be  a  greater  beauty  than  any 
of  the  lot,  with  a  singular  fascination  of  eye  like  a  loving  little 
serpent.  We  came  down  Monday  morning,  and  after  a  few 
hours'  tour  through  Holland,  arrived  at  Hunstanton  at  7  P.M. 
Certainly  the  track  of  the  railway  through  Cambridgeshire 
and  Norfolk  shows  a  dead  level  of  green  pastures,  enlivened 
by  canals,  windmills,  and  pumps,  such  as  I  didn't  suppose 
possible  on  this  side  of  the  North  Sea.  This  house  I  believe 
you  have  never  seen.  It  is  certainly  full  of  character.  It  is 
on  rather  level  ground,  moated,  with  a  double  courtyard,  a  sort 
of  "Buitenhof"  and  "Binnenhof"  in  miniature.  The  best 
part  of  the  house  was  burned  to  the  ground  about  twenty  years 
ago,  and  was  Elizabethan.  The  part  now  occupied  was  built  in 
James  the  First's  time,  and  le  Strange  is  going  to  rebuild 
the  burnt  portions.  There  is  a  large  formal  garden,  with  long 
walks,  sheltered  from  the  winds  by  hedges  of  holly,  and  a  good 
park.  There  are  one  or  two  good  family  portraits,  particularly 

a  Sir  Nicholas  le  Strange,  by  Holbein.     E 's  portrait,  by 

Watts,  is  the  chief  beauty  exhibited  on  the  walls  of  the  old 
house.  Parts  of  the  mansion  are  of  Edward  the  Second's  time, 
and  the  le  Stranges  have  been  living  here  since  "Bichard 
Conqueror,"  being  an  old  family,  like  Christopher  Sly.  Le 
Strange  is  a  very  good  fellow  indeed,  manly,  intelligent, 
straightforward,  entirely  a  gentleman,  and  they  seem  a  happy 
married  couple.  I  sent  back  Mother  Martineau's  three  volumes 
to  Cawthorn  and  Hutt.  Certainly  that  autobiography  is  as 
neat  a  monument  of  human  conceit  and  self-satisfaction  as  can 
be  found  in  English  literature.  I  have  been  much  pleased  with 
Doudan's  letters.  The  style  is  exquisite,  and  the  thoughts, 
often  original,  and  al  ways  subtle  and  suggestive,  are  those  of 


1877.]  ENGLAND  AND  RUSSIA.  409 

a  man  who  had  great  admiration  of  others,  none  of  himself, 
and  who  "  doffed  the  world  aside  and  bid  it  pass  "  from  mere 
lack  of  ambition,  literary  or  political.  He  seems  to  have  known 
intimately  most  of  the  personnages  marquants  of  the  first 
seventy-two  years  of  this  century,  which  was  the  span  of  his 
life,  and,  according  to  the  introduction  to  the  published 
"  Nachlass,"  was  much  cherished  by  them. 
God  bless  you,  my  dear  child  ! 


To  his  Eldest  Daughter. 

Kingston  Russell, 
Sunday,  May  13th,  1877. 

DEAREST  LILY, — I  am  going  to  write  a  single  line  to  thank 
you  for  your  proposal  that  I  should  come  up  to  you  after 
Whitsuntide.  But  I  think  it  infinitely  better  that  I  should 
stop  here ;  I  should  only  be  an  incumbrance  in  London.  I  am 
quite  beyond  the  possibilities  of  a  London  season,  and  am  very 
contented  here.  Don't  let  Susie  put  it  into  your  head  that 
there  is  anything  the  matter  with  me.  It  is  altogether  a  mistake. 
I  am  quite  "in  my  plate."  Writing  becomes  more  difficult 
as  the  arm  becomes  stiffer,  and  the  effort  strains  the  head ; 
but  there  is  nothing  whatever  in  my  general  condition  different 
from  what  it  has  been  for  the  last  four  years.  There  is  not 
much  need  of  forcing  myself  to  take  exercise,  although  that  is 
sometimes  good  for  one's  spirits — "but  I  care  not  for  my 
spirits  if  my  legs  were  not  so  weary."  I  shall  look  with 
interest  for  Harcourt's  speech,  which  I  hope  and  suppose  he 
will  make  on  Monday  now  that  the  debate  is  adjourned.  It 
was  very  generous  of  him  to  announce  through  Lord  Hartington 
his  willingness  to  abstain.  I  am  utterly  unable  to  understand 
English  politics.  I  think  the  idea  of  self-governing  little 
states,  strung  together  between  Turkey  and  Kussia,  the  most 
preposterous  notion  the  mind  of  man  ever  conceived,  and  it 
doesn't  make  it  more  impressive  to  call  them  autonomies. 
However,  I  am  not  going  to  write  a  political  letter — tant  s'en 
faut.  The  only  one  thing  that  seems  to  me  clear  in  the  not 

VOL.  II.  2  E 


410  MOTLEY'S  LETTERS.  [CHAP.  XI. 

very  remote  future  is  war  between  England  and  Kussia. 
Meanwhile  the  polishing  off  by  Eussia  of  Turkey  will  be  a 
tremendous  business  to  look  upon.  It  is  a  pity,  now  that  the 
Eastern  Question  seems  to  be  approaching  its  solution,  England 
should  be  governed  by  an  Oriental,  and  be  perpetually  receiv- 
ing votes  of  thanks  for  Turkey.  May  is  divine  as  ever,  and 
Toto  almost  as  pretty  and  exceedingly  original.  Brin  Brin, 
in  his  "  itty-taty-too,"  is  magnificent,  and  looks  as  if  you  could 
not  knock  him  down,  as  Falstaff  says,  "with  a  three-man 
beetle."  I  hope  you  will  write  as  often  as  you  can,  my  dear 
child ;  your  letters  are  exceedingly  interesting,  and  they  are 
the  only  ones  almost  that  I  receive.  But  I  know  you  have  an 
immensity  to  do.  and  I  implore  you  not  to  fatigue  yourself. 
It  is  very  hard  for  me  to  write,  or  I  would  send  you  a  letter 
every  day.  You  must  take  the  will  for  the  deed.  I  have  at  last 
written  to  the  Queen l  and  answered  one  or  two  other  letters,  and 
now  I  must  pause  ....  If  you  by  chance  should  see  Princess 
Louise,  don't  forget  to  remind  her  that  we  hope  to  have  some 
day  the  photograph  of  the  drawing.  I  think  it  the  best 
likeness  ever  made  of  me.  Good-bye,  God  bless  you ! 


To  Ms  Eldest  Daughter. 

Kingston  Russell, 

May  llth,  1877. 

DEAREST  LILY, — Many  thanks  for  your  very  interesting 
letter.  You  know  how  very  agreeable  it  is  to  me  to  hear  of 
your  enjoying  yourself  in  the  world  political  and  social,  and 
your  letters  in  this  profound  solitude  do  one  good.  It  must 
be  an  immense  pleasure  to  you  to  see  and  hear  your  husband's 
great  success,  and  to  be  so  warmly  and  justly  congratulated 
upon  it.  I  sympathise  with  you  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart ; 
indeed,  I  should  not  be  writing  at  this  moment  except  to  add 
my  mite  to  the  applause  which  his  speech  on  the  Eastern 
Question  has  so  generally  evoked :  I  have  read  it  twice  with 
great  interest  and  admiration,  and  only  wish  I  could  hear  him. 
But  that,  alas !  can  never  be.  I  also  read  and  liked  very 
1  Of  the  Netherlands. 


1877.]  LAST  LETTER,  411 

much  his  speech  at  the  Artists'  Benevolent  Society.  He  must 
be  getting  very  tired,  and  I  am  glad  for  his  sake  as  well  as 
yours  that  you  are  to  have  a  holiday.  It  was  a  very  great 

pleasure  to  us  having  N 1  and  1ST here  even  for  so 

short  a  time  :  it  was  very  kind  of  them  to  come.  We  all  ad- 
mired N very  much,  from  Algy  down  to  Brin  Brin  :  she  is 

certainly  exceedingly  pretty,  attractive,  intelligent,  and  sympa- 
thetic. I  do  fervently  hope  she  is  not  going  to  bury  herself 
in  that  gloom  thought  by  some  people  eternally  de  rigueur  for 
very  youthful  mourners :  it  is  unnatural  and  fictitious  for  one 
so  young  and  with  a  long  life  before  her.  The  children  are  well 
and  sweet.  I  must  stop,  as  I  must  write  a  line  to  Donald 
Mackay,2  and  also  to  his  Braut.  It  seems  to  me  a  wonderfully 
good  marriage,  exactly  what  one  might  have  planned  for  both. 
God  bless  you.  Love  to  Harcourt.3 


The  following  sympathetic  allusion  to  Mr.  Motley,  made  by 
Dean  Stanley  in  a  sermon  preached  in  Westminster  Abbey  on 
June  3rd,  1877,  is  given  as  forming  a  fitting  conclusion  to 
these  volumes : — 

"...  But  there  is  a  yet  deeper  key  of  harmony  that  has 
just  been  struck  within  the  last  week.  The  hand  of  death  has 
removed  from  his  dwelling-place  amongst  us  one  of  the 
brightest  lights  of  the  Western  Hemisphere — the  high-spirited 
patriot,  the  faithful  friend  of  England's  best  and  purest 
spirits,  the  brilliant,  the  indefatigable  historian  who  told,  as 
none  before  him  had  told,  the  history  of  the  rise  and  struggle 
of  the  Dutch  Kepublic,  almost  a  part  of  his  own. 

"We  sometimes  ask  what  room  or  place  is  left  in  the 
crowded  temple  of  Europe's  fame  for  one  of  the  Western  World 
to  occupy.  But  a  sufficient  answer  is  given  in  the  work  which 
was  reserved  to  be  accomplished  by  him  who  has  just  departed. 
So  long  as  the  tale  of  the  greatness  of  the  House  of  Orange,  of 

1  His  brother  and  niece.  his  daughter.    Mr.  Motley  died  sud- 

2  Now  Lord  Reay.  denly  at  Kingston  Russell,  on  the  29th 

3  This  was  the  last  note  written  to      of  May,  1877. 

2  E  2 


412  MOTLEY'S  LETTEKS.  [CHAP.  XL 

the  siege  of  Leyden,  of  the  tragedy  of  Barneveld,  interests 
mankind,  so  long  will  Holland  be  indissolubly  connected  with 
the  name  of  Motley,  in  the  union  of  the  ancient  culture  of 
Europe,  with  the  aspirations  of  America  which  was  so  remark- 
able in  the  ardent,  laborious,  soaring  soul  that  has  passed 
away. 

"He  loved  that  land  of  his  with  a  passionate  zeal,  he  loved 
the  land  of  his  adoption  with  a  surpassing  love.  .  .  .  He  loved 
the  Fatherland,  the  mother  tongue  of  the  literature  which  he 
had  made  his  own.  He  loved  the  land  which  was  the  happy 
home  of  his  children,  and  which  contained  the  dearly  cherished 
grave  of  her  beside  whom  he  will  be  laid  to-morrow. 

"  Whenever  any  gifted  spirit  passes  from  our  world  to  the 
other,  it  brings  both  within  our  nearer  view — the  world  of  this 
mortal  life,  with  its  contentions  and  strifes,  its  joys  and  griefs, 
now  to  him  closed  for  ever,  but  amidst  which  he  won  his 
fame,  and  in  which  his  name  shall  long  endure ;  and  the  other 
world  of  our  ideal  vision,  of  our  inexhaustible  longings,  of  our 
blank  misgivings,  of  our  inextinguishable  hopes,  of  our  ever- 
lasting reunions,  the  eternal  love  in  which  live  the  spirits  of 
the  just  made  perfect,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  which  being 
above  is  free,  the  city  of  which  God  Himself  is  the  light,  and 
in  whose  light  we  shall  see  light." 


INDEX. 


ABERGELDIE. 


A. 

Abergeldie,  visit  to,  ii.  35. 

Agassiz,  Mr.,  ii.  3. 

,  Mrs.,  ii.  379. 

Airlie,  Lady,  i.  240,  251. 
Alabama,'  The,  ii.  Ill ;  sinking  of, 
164,  169. 

Albert,  Archduke,  ii.  237. 

Alexander,  Miss  F.,  grace  and  purity  of 
her  drawings,  i.  182. 

Alford,  Lady  Marian,  ii.  398. 

Alibone's  '  Biog.  Diet.,'  notice  of  the 
*  Dutch  Republic,'  in,  i.  316. 

Allonheads,  visit  at,  ii.  394. 

America,  signs  of  approaching  trouble, 
338;  affairs  of,  engross  Motley's 
mind,i.  147 ;  ii.  27,  18,  165,  188, 201 ; 
Radicalism  in,  ii.  255 ;  political  pro- 
spect in,  i.  366  ;  ii.  57-75,  168. 

American  travellers  at  Bad-Gastein,  i. 
42. 

Revivalists,  i.  308. 

Civil  War,  i.  364,  372 ;  ii.  1  sqq. ; 

close    of,  ii.   201 ;  bitter  feeling  to- 
wards England,  373. 

hospitality,  ii.  285. 

and  European  politics,  i.  147,  148, 

338 ;  ii.  71. 

Amory,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  i.  244,  253,  et  seq. 

,  Mr.W.,  letter  to,  about  a  Charity 

Bazaar  in  Vienna,  ii.  248. 

Amsterdam  palace,  ball  at,  i.  313. 

Antielam,  battle  of,  ii.  99. 

Anti-slavery  feeling,  growth  of  in  Eng- 
land, ii.  113, 381 ;  ii.  52,  113,  273. 

Antwerp,  i.  107,  164. 

Apollo  Belvedere,  i.  42. 

Appleton,  Mr.,  ii.  10;  tribute  to  his 
character,  16. 

Apsley  House,  ball  at,  i.  298. 

Archives,  English,  i.  204;  Dutch,  i. 
303 ;  Vienna,  exclusion  from,  ii.  175. 

Argyll,  Duchess  of,  letter  to,  on  the 


AUTOCRAT 

American  crisis,  i.  370  ;  acknowledg- 
ing the  Duke's  •  Reign  of  Law,'  ii. 
253 ;  on  London  fogs,  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Government,  316. 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  i.  352;  letter  from, 
on  the  feeling  of  England  to  the 
United  States,  ii.  31 ;  a  warm  friend 
to  America,  54 ;  his  anti-slavery 
speech  in  Liverpool,  113;  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  273. 

Lodge,  ii.  267,  370. 

'  Ariadne,'  Dannecker's,  i.  104. 

Aristocracy,  compared  with  Democracy, 
ii.  142, 192 ;  the  English,  ii.  266,  294 ; 
Austrian,  ii.  184. 

Arlington  House,  i.  386. 

Army,  the  Northern,  i.  374-387 ;  ii.  5, 
15*  17,  87,  137,  etc. 

Arnheim,  ii.  333. 

Articles,  the  Four,  of  the  Congress  of 
Paris,  i.  380,  n. 

Ashburton,  Lord,  i.  297. 

Aspinwall,  Mr.,  purchase  of  pictures, 
i.  214. 

Athenaeum  Club,  Motley  admitted  to, 
i.  230. 

< Atlantic  Magazine,'  the,  i.  223,  387 ; 
ii.  169,  195. 

Telegraph,  its  effects,  ii.  240. 

Augustus  of  Saxe-Coburg,  Prince, 
breakfast  with,  ii.  186. 

d'Aumale,  Duke,  ii.  268. 

'  Aurora,'  Guide's,  i.  47. 

Austria  :  sympathy  with  the  North,  ii. 
56  ;  peasantry,  184;  war  with  Prus- 
sia, 214,  218,  226,  233 ;  collapse  of  its 
prestige,  246 ;  aristocracy,  exclusive- 
ness  of,  184.  See  VIENNA. 

,  Emperor  of,  ii.  43,  153,  198. 

,  Empress  of,  ii.  153 ;  her  beauty, 

199. 

,  Empire,  its  constitution  sus- 
pended, ii.  208. 

'Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table,' 
The,  i.  224,  226,  337. 


414 


INDEX. 


BAD-GASTEIN. 

B. 

Bad-Gastein,  i.  41. 

Bakhuysen,  Mr.,  translation  of  the 
*  Dutch  Kepublic,'  under  his  super- 
intendence, i.  211. 

Ball,  Mr.  T.,  sculptor,  i.  182. 

Ball's  Bluff,  battle  of,  ii.  40,  44. 

Bancroft,  Mr.  G.,  letter  on  the  'Dutch 
Eepublic,'  i.  201;  dinner  with,  ii. 
348. 

Barneveld,  J.  van  Olden,  work  on  his 
life,  ii.  323,  369 ;  house,  332  ;  work 
published,  375. 

Bartlett,  Captain,  ii.  74. 

Basel,  journey  to,  i.  173. 

Bates,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.,  i.  333 ;  ii.  34. 

Bazaar  in  Vienna  on  behalf  of  the 
sufferers  from  the  war,  ii.  248. 

Beauchamp,  Lord,  ii.  292. 

Bendermann  at  Dresden,  i.  150. 

Benedek,  Marshal,  ii.  225  ;  his  strategy, 
227. 

Berlin,  i.  28 ;  routine  of  daily  life,  30  ; 
theatres,  31 ;  ' Goetz  von  Berli- 
chingen,'  31. 

Berne,  i.  180. 

Bernstorf,  Countess,  ii.  365. 

Berthemy,  M.,  ii.  305. 

Bide,  M.  de.,  i.  312. 

Bismarck,  cordial  reception  of  Motley 
at  Frankfort,  i.  174;  his  fine  cha"- 
racter,  175;  domestic  life,  177;  on 
the  vexations  of  a  minister,  ii.  126; 
begs  Motley  to  visit  him  at  Berlin, 
159  ;  at  Vienna,  166, 171 ;  his  strong 
will,  223 ;  invites  Motley  to  Varzin, 
309,  339 ;  on  Mr.  Bancroft's  recall, 
311;  sends  his  photographs,  314; 
house  and  daily  life,  340,  346 ;  remi- 
niscences of  the  Austrian  war,  341 ; 
interviews  witli  Thiers  and  Favre, 
342;  suffers  from  insomnia,  342; 
silver  wedding,  345;  affection  for 
wife  and  children,  347. 

Bismarck,  Mme.  de,  amiable  character, 
i.  176,  221. 

*  Black  sheep,'  ii.  288. 

Blackwood,  Mr.,  i.  235,  253,  258. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  Mr.,  i.  393.  » 

Blaque  Bey,  ii.  306. 

Blockade,  the,  and  the  cotton  crop,  i. 
383. 

Bloomfield,  Lord,  ii.  39,  47. 

Boott,  Mr.,  i.  182,  190. 

Society,  i.  341,  361 :  ii.  67,  256. 

Boston,  return  to,  i.  371 ;  ii.  301 ;  so- 
ciety at,  i.  341 ;  cordial  reception,  i. 
371 ;  regard  for  England  in,  372  ;  re- 
view of  troops  at,  ii.  19 ;  anti-slavery 


CATHEDRALS. 

feeling,  94;    Saturday  club,  i.  341 
361  ;  ii.  67,  209,  256 ;  great  fire,  357. 

Bournemouth,  winter  at,  ii.  356. 

Bramshill,  ii.  281. 

Breadalbane,  Lord,  i.  353. 

Bright,  Mr.  J.,  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, i.  262 ;  speech  on  the  Ame- 
rican war,  ii.  48;  letter  on  the 
"  Trent "  affair,  51 ;  and  the  block- 
ade, 52  ;  English  jealousy  of  America, 
120;  revulsion  of  feeling,  121;  speech 
at  Kochdale,  121 ;  Motley's  influence 
on  Cobden,  204,  n. ;  opinion  of  Lin- 
coln, 206 ;  his  appearance  described, 
272. 

Brill,  the  300th  anniversary  of  its 
capture,  ii.  336. 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  at  the  Chapter  Coffee 
House,  i.  253. 

Brooks,  Governor,  death  of,  i.  3. 

Brougham,  Lord,  i.  169,  258,  269,  270, 
291,  345  ;  on  the  slave  trade,  267. 

Broughton,  Miss,  '  Cometh  up  as  a 
flower,'  ii.  289. 

Brownell,  Lieut.,  ii.  21. 

Bruce,  Sir  F.,  ii.  209. 

Brunnow,  Baron,  i.  255. 

Brussels,  i.  107 ;  residence  at,  158 ;  the 
Grande  Place  described,  162 ;  daily 
routine,  163;  return  to,  212;  hard 
work  in  the  Archives,  215,  216. 

Bull's  Eun,  battle,  ii.  18,  21 ;  news  of 
defeat  at,  23  ;  incidents  of,  29. 

Bund,  the,  abolition  of,-  ii.  156,  215, 
221-226,  238-243. 

Burlingame,  Mr.,  ii.  211. 

Bnrnside,  Gen.,  his  operations,  ii.  73. 

Butler,  Gen.,  ii.  15,  93. 

Byron,  Lady,  i.  235,  240. 

Lord,  Motley's  resemblance  to,  i. 

240;  his  MS.  'Curse  of  Minerva,' 
284. 

C. 

Cabot,  Mr.  G.,  i.  69. 

Camperdown,  Lord,  ii.  275. 

Canitz,  Baron,  i.  195. 

Cannes,  Motley  ordered  to,  ii.  376. 

Carlisle,  Lord,  i.  230,  234,  261,  288  ; 

death,  ii.  204. 
Carlyle,  i.  229,  237  ;  his  works,  ii.  105; 

letter  on  the  death  of  Mrs.  Motley, 

384. 

Casa  della  Neve,  Sicily,  i.  53. 
Cassiobury  Park,  i.  295. 
Castellamare,  i.  194. 
Catania,  i.  50  ;  its  harbours,  50. 
Cathedrals,  comparison  of  English  and 

foreign,  i.  59. 


INDEX. 


415 


CEDAR  MOUNTAIN. 

Cedar  Mountain  battle,  ii.  90. 

Chapter  Coffee  House,  i.  253. 

Chase,  Mr.,  i.  387 ;  on  the  slave  ques- 
tion, 388,  390. 

Chevening,  ii.  275,  284. 

Chislehurst,  ii.  287. 

Chiswick  House,  i.  234,  261. 

Clarendon,  Lord,  i.  255,  295. 

Clarendon,  Lady,  i.  295. 

Clarke,  Mr.,  i.  68. 

Cliveden,  i.  278. 

Cobdeu's  leaning  towards  the  South,  ii. 
205 ;  death,  205. 

Collins,  Wilkie,  i.  365. 

Compromise  impossible  on  the  slave 
question,  ii.  71. 

Conscience,  H.,  his  stories,  i.  215. 

Conway,  Mr.,  on  the  slavery  in  the 
South,  ii.  57. 

Cooper's  novel,  *  The  Prairie,'  i.  7. 

Copyright,  form  of,  for  the  'Dutch 
Republic,'  filled  up,  i.  179;  inter- 
national, 336. 

Cosmopolitan  Club,  the,  i.  227. 

Cotton  famine,  the,  ii.  35. 

Cranworth,  Lord,  i.  169. 

Crimean  War,  i.  170. 

Cuba  and  the  slave  trade,  Lord  Broug- 
ham on,  i.  267. 

Cunningham,  Frank,  and  his  wife,  i. 
256. 

Cuxhaven,  i.  10. 

Czar,  the,  i.  86. 

D. 

Dana,  Mr.,  his  nomination  to  the  senate, 

ii.  390. 

Darwin,  Mr.,  i.  269. 
Davis,  Adm.,  death  of,  ii.  404. 
Davison,  the  actor,  ii.  199. 
Dawson,  Darner,  Col.,  ii.  295. 
Democracy  in  England  and  America, 

ii.   63 ;    failings   of   America,   115  ; 

Motley's  belief  in,  192. 
Democrats  and  the  war,  ii.  14. 
Denbigh,  Earl  of,  i.  288. 
Denison,  Lady  Charlotte,  i.  284. 
Denmark,  King  of,  death,  ii.  144. 
Derby,  the,  i.  231. 
*  Derby  Dizzies,'  the,  i.  248. 
Despatches  and  blue  books,  ii.  243. 
Devrient,  Emil,  i.  178. 
Diary    of    journey    from    Vienna    to 

Styria,  Tyrol,  &c.,  i.  36-42. 
Dicey,  Mr.,  'Notes  of  a  Journey  in 

Amerit  a,'  ii,  91. 
Dickens,  Charles,  i.  365. 
Dinner  parties  in  London  described,  i. 

274. 


ENGLAND. 

Disraeli's  speech  at  Slough,  i.  249; 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  262  ; 
peculiar  dress  when  young,  264  ; 
Reform  Bill,  ii.  264,  267. 

Dixon,  Hepworth,  'New  America,'  ii. 
284. 

Donelson,  fort,  capture  of,  ii.  48. 

Doudan's  letters,  ii.  408. 

Dover,  the  Lord  Warden  Hotel,  i.  178. 

Dresden,  i,  128;  climate,  129;  opera, 
131 ;  picnic,  133 ;  picture  gallery, 
135  ;  engraving  cabinet,  green  vault, 
138  ;  works  of  Dinglinger,  139  ; 
library,  140 ;  dulness  of  life  at,  140, 
141 ;  court  presentation,  150 ;  return 
to,  ii.  326. 

Dublin,  i.  59. 

Dufferin,  Lady,  i.  263;  anecdote  of 
Disraeli,  264  ;  brilliant  conversation, 
277 ;  letter  to  Mrs.  Norton,  346. 

Dunfermline,  Lord,  i.  308. 

Dutch,  the,  i.  127. 

'  Dutch  Republic,'  History  of  the,  i. 
142,  146;  preliminaries  for  publish- 
ing, 167 ;  publication,  172,  n. ;  in 
America,  179;  number  of  copies 
sold,  191 ;  headings  of  chapters,  192, 
196 ;  criticisms  in  the  English  and 
the  American  press,  193-195 ;  trans- 
lated into  Dutch,  211. 

Dwight,  Wilder,  his  death,  ii.  99. 


E. 

East  Horsley  Towers,  i.  331. 

East  Sheen,  i.  333. 

Eastern  Question,  the,  ii.  395. 

Eastlake,  Sir  C.,  i.  271. 

,  Lady,  i.  271,  ii.  330. 

Elections,  presidential,  prospects  of,  i. 
134,  182,  338 ;  ii.  143,  191,  355. 

Elections  in  America,  ii.  101 ;  results 
of,  107,  143. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  ii.  105,  296. 

Ellice,  Mr.,  i.  352. 

Elliott,  Mr.,  i.  70,  100. 

'  Elsie  Venner,'  i.  367-370. 

Elsworth,  Col.,  killed,  i.  384. 

Emerson,  his  voice,  sense,  and  wit,  ii. 
318. 

England,  journey  to,  i.  166  ;  return  to, 
178,  325  ;  Mr.  Seward's  negotiations, 
381;  attitude  of,  i.  372,  391,  ii.  42, 
52-59,  364 ;  Mr.  Motley's  love  of, 
i.  337,  391,  ii.  43,  63,  101,  155.  291, 
407 ;  compared  with  America,  i.  170, 
ii.  120 ;  politics,  i.  248,  262  ;  danger 
of  war  with,  ii.  47 ;  Motley  appointed 
U.  S.  Minister  to,  ii.  301 ;  his  recall 


416 


INDEX. 


ENGLISH  SOCIETY. 

320 ;  state  of  public  feeling  towards 
America,  i.  372,  ii.  37-52,  92-96, 101 
-112,  120,  203,  284. 

English  Society,  i.  227,  246,  256 ;  com- 
pared with  that  on  continent,  i.  327, 
ii.  55,  109,  125,  155,  246,  266. 

Hotels,  i.  178. 

Englishwomen,  i.  240;  the  grand- 
mothers, i.  250,  263. 

Essex,  Earl  of,  i  295. 

Etna,  ascent  of,  i.  51 ;  casa  della  Neve, 
53;  casa  Inglese,  54;  sunrise,  54; 
crater,  55. 

Europe,  first  voyage  to,  i.  10. 

European  politics,  i.  327 ;  ii.  138,  144, 
150  ;  rumours  of  war,  ii.  130. 

Ewarts,  Mr.,  ii.  305. 

Everett,  Mr.  Ed.,  speech  at  New  York, 
ii.  18 ;  letter  from,  156. 


F. 

Fane,  Hon.  Julian,  ii.  157. 

Farragut,  Adm.,  ii.  211. 

Fay,  T.  S.,  death  of  his  wife,  i.  180  ; 

letter  on  the  « Dutch  Kepublic,'  196. 
Felton,  Mr.  C.  C.,  letter  on  the  '  Dutch 

Republic,'  i.  198. 
Ferdinand  Maximilian,  Archduke,  ii. 

66. 

Fielding,  Lady  Mary,  i.  252,  288. 
Fisher  Fort,  capture  of,  ii.  199. 
Florence,  i.  179  ;  description,  183  ;   the 

city  of   flowers,   184;    her  brilliant 

past,  185;  vicissitudes,  187;  picture 

galleries,  188  ;    present    condition , 

prices,  189. 

St.  Florian,  images  of,  i.  38. 
Fogs,  London,  in  November,  i.  330. 
Folsom,  Mr.,  i.  159. 
Forbes,  Mr.,  and  Lady  Adelaide,  i.  131. 
Forster,  Mr.  W.  E.,  letter  to  Motley 

on  the    crisis  in  America,  i.   366; 

dinner  with,  ii.  34. 

,  Mr.  J.,  i.  271. 

Forsyth,  Mr.,  i.  167, 169. 
Fountain's  Abbey,  i.  350. 
Frampton  Court,  ii.  294,  295. 
France :  See  Louis  NAPOLEON. 
Frankfort,  Dannecker's  Ariadne,  cathe- 
dral clock,  i.  104;   the  Bismarcks, 

173,  218. 
Frederick  the  Great,  palace  and  relics 

at  Potsdam,  i.  33. 

Frederick,  Prince  of  Holland,  i.  307. 
Free  Trade,  ii,  200. 

French  intervention,  rumours  of,  ii.  122. 
Fremont's    speech    at    the    Tremont 

Temple,  ii.  86. 


GUIZOT. 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  ii.  270. 

Frognal,  ii.  287. 

Froude,  Mr.,  article  on  the  '  Dutch  Re- 
public' in  the  'Westminster  Review,' 
i.  190;  ill  health,  252. 

Fryston  Hall,  ii.  33. 


G. 

Gachard,  M.,  i.  210. 
Gemmalaro,  Dr.,  i.,  52. 
German,  study  of,  i.  16. 
Germany,  unity  of,    ii.  241 ;  accomp- 
lished by  Bismarck,  351. 
Gettysburg,  battle,  ii.  135. 
Gibbs,  Mr.  ii.  277. 
Gibson,  Milner,  anti-slavery    speech,. 

ii.  113. 

Giftord,  Lord,  his  sculptures,  i.  276. 
Girgenti,  i.  57. 
Givon's  Grove,  or  Grove  Farm,  ii.  283, 

288. 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  luncheon  with,  ii.  372,, 
Glen  Quoich,  i.  352. 
Gmunden,  Ischl,  Salzburg,  &c.,  tour  to, 

ii.  186. 
Goderich,  Lady,  i.  251. 

,  Lord,  i.  232,  365. 

Goethe,  Madame  de,  i.  35,  103. 
Gordon,   Col.,  of  the    Massachusetts 

Second,  i.  376 ;  incidents  of  the  battle 

of  Bull's  Run,  ii.  29. 
Gordon  Regiment,  the,  departure  to  the 

geat  of  war,  ii.  6-8. 
Gottingen,  life  at,  i.  14 ;  library,  18. 
Grandmothers,  the,  of  England,  i.  250r 

263. 
Grant,  General  U.   S.,   ii.   146;    his- 

Richmond  campaign,   164;  a  great 

general,  170;  his  wonderful  character,. 

202 ;  simplicity,  power  of  sleeping, 

210 ;   appointed    Secretary  of  Wary 

283 ;  election  in  1872,  355. 
Granville,  Lord,  his    resemblance  to 

Longfellow,  i.  284. 
Gray's  elegy,  i.  292. 
Great  Bethel,  skirmish  at,  i.  385. 
Green,  Mr.   C.  W.,  his  school    near 

Boston,  i.  1. 
Greene,  Mrs.,  ii.  2. 
Grey,  Lord  de,  i.  349. 
Groningen,  ii.  334. 
Grote,  Mr.,  i.  333. 
,  Mrs.,  i.   333;     originality    and 

humour,  334 ;  luncheon  with,  ii,  278, 
Griiner,  Prof.,;ii.  329. 
'  Guardian  Angel,'  the,  ii.  256. 
Guizot,  M.,  described,  i.  105;  on  the 

French  translation  of  the  'Dutch 


INDEX. 


417 


HADRIAN'S  VILLA. 

Republic/  319 ;  letter  to  Motley  on 
receiving  the  '  United  Netherlands/ 
356 ;  proposing  him  corresponding 
member  of  the  French  Academy,  334. 

H. 

Hadrian's  villa,  i.  44. 

Hague,  the,  i.  158 ;  reception  at,  210  ; 
popularity  of  the  '  Dutch  Kepublic,' 
211 ;  hard  work,  213,  303;  national 
archives,  303 ;  return  to,  ii.  320. 

Hall  in  Upper  Austria,  stay  in,  ii. 
207. 

Hallam,  Mr.,  i.  251. 

Halle,  i.  101 ;  Moritz  Burg,  legend  of 
the  church.  102. 

Hallein  salt  mines,  i.  39. 

Hamburg  to  Gb'ttingen,  journey,  i.  17  ; 
voyage  to,  67. 

Hamley,  Col.,  dinner  with,  ii.  278. 

Hanover,  King  of,  ii.  247. 

Harcoui  t,  Sir  W.,  speech  on  the  Eastern 
Question,  ii.  399 ;  his  marriage, 
400. 

Harper's  Ferry,  evacuation  of,  i.  378. 

Harrow  Speeches,  the,  i.  281 ;  church- 
yard, 281. 

Hartz  Mts.,  the,  i.  17. 

Harvard  College,  Motley  graduated  at, 
i.  10;  'Commencement'  at,  ii.  17. 

Hatfield  House,  i.  286;  the  Burleigh 
papers,  286 ;  family  archives,  ii.  366. 

d'Hauteville,  Mr.  F.  and  his  bride, 
ii.  145. 

,  Mrs.,  ii.  107. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  i.  332;  letter 
to  Motley  about  the  « Marble  Faun/ 
339;  scene  of  his  'Blithedale 
Romance/  375. 

Hay,  Lord  J.,  ii.  230. 

,  Mr.  J.,  ii.  265. 

Hayward,  Mr.  A.,  i.  255,  265,  ii.  83. 

Higgler's  Circus,  ii.  398. 

Henry,  Princess  of  the  Netherlands 
death,  ii.  338. 

Herbert,  Mr.  Sidney,  i.  350. 

Higgins,  Mr.  '  Jacob  Omnium/  i.  227. 

Higginson,  Mr.,  i.  149. 

Hilaire,  St.,  Mons.  B.,  letter  on  the 
'United  Netherlands/  i.  355. 

Hilliard,  Mr.,  review  of  the  '  Dutch 
Republic/  i.  179. 

Holbein  Controversy,  the,  ii.  327,  330. 

Holland,  i.  125  ;  duel  with  the  sea,  125  ; 
polders,  126;  Haarlem  lake,  126; 
Dutch  and  Flemish  schools  of  paint- 
ing, 126;  country  houses  and  canals, 


HURLBERT. 

Holland,  King  of,  i.  310;  appearance 
and  courtesy,  311. 

,  Queen  of,  anecdote  of,  i.  271 ;  pre- 
sentation to,  304 ;  excursions  to  the 
ruins  of  Brederode  Castle,  ii.  323  ; 
invited  to  Frampton  Court,  353 ; 
Motley's  visit  to  her,  391 ;  her  fine 
character,  391,  392. 

,  Lord,  i.  291,  294. 

House,  i.  290 ;  value  of  place  for 

building  purposes,  201,  ii.  269. 

Holmes,  Dr.  O.  W.,  letter  to,  on  his 
poem,  i.  199 ;  on  getting  access  to 
the  State  Paper  office,  204 ;  popularity 
of  his  poems  in  England,  205 ;  Motley 's 
despondency,  222 ;  on  the  '  Autocrat y 
and  the  '  Atlantic/  335 ;  letters  on 
political  and  literary  affairs  of  the 
States,  341;  the  'Dutch  Republic/ 
342 ;  the  labours  of  an  historian, 
357;  doubtful  times  and  principles, 
360 ;  literary  gossip,  361 ;  his  son 
wounded,  ii.  40,  44 ;  '  Songs  in  many 
keys/  and  other  poems,  62  ;  on  Mrs. 
Motley's  death,  84;  his  oration,  141  ; 
on  Miss  L.  Motley's  marriage,  209 ; 
Gen.  Grant's  simplicity  of  character, 
210;  letter  to,  congratulations  on 
Miss  Holmes'  engagement,  321 ;  two 
poems  of  welcome  to  the  Russian 
prince,  333 ;  his  *  Poet  at  the  Break- 
fast Table/  337,  349 ;  '  Table  Talk/ 
350;  letter  to  Motley  on  the  death 
of  his  wife,  383. 

Holmes,  O.  W.  Jun.,  wounded  at  Ball's 
Bluff  battle,  ii.  40,  44  ;  made  Lieut.- 
Col.,  212 ;  reception  in  England, 
255 ;  engagement  to  Miss  Dixwell, 
335. 

'Hope  Leslie/  Motley's  opinion  of,  i. 
8. 

Hough  ton,  Lady,  ii.  277. 

,  Lord  (see  Milnes),  ii.  277;  the 

'  Bird  of  Paradise/  299. 

Hourn,  Loch,  i.  352. 

House  of  Commons,  the,  i.  261 ;  style 
of  speaking,  262. 

House  of  Lords,  the,  debate  on  Cuba 
question,  i.  272 ;  contrasted  with  the 
American  Senate,  272 ;  India  debate, 
299. 

Howells,  Mr.,  ii.  212. 

Hughes,  Mr.  T.,  i.  285,  350;  ii.  262, 
373. 

Hugo,  Prof.,  peculiar  passion  for 
thermometers,  i.  18. 

Hume's  '  History  of  England/  i.  4. 

Hunstanton  Hall,  ii.  408. 

Hurlbert,  Mr.,  i.  244,  265. 


418 


INDEX. 


INVERARAY  CASTLE. 
I. 

Inveraray  Castle,  i.  352,  ii.  394. 
Ireland,  disestablishment  in,  ii.  317. 
Irving,  Washington,  letter  to  Motley, 

on  the  '  Dutch  Republic,'  i.  202. 
Isel  Hall,  ii.  394. 
Italy,  war  in,  i.  323 ;    position  of,  ii. 

239. 

J. 

John,  Gen.  von,  ii.  237. 

John  of  Saxony,  Prince,  i.  143;  his 
translation  of  the  '  Divina  Corn- 
media,'  144. 

Johnson,  Pres.  A.,  ii.  213. 

Johnston,  Gen.,  ii.  15. 

Jonghe,  M.  de,  i.  308. 

Judd,  Mr.,  ii.  303. 


K. 

Karolyi,  Countess,  anecdote  of,  ii.  325,  n. 
King,  Lady  Annabella,  i.  301. 

• ,  Gen.,  his  father  and  family,  ii. 

254. 

Kinglake,  Mr.,  i,  302. 
Kingsley,  Kev.  C.,  i.  232. 
Klemme  pass,  the,  i.  41. 
Koniggratz,  battle  of,  ii.  230. 
Konigsberg  Cathedral,  i.  71. 
Konigswinter  on  the  Rhine,  i.  123. 


Lamb,  Charles,  ii.  131. 
Labouchere,  Lady  M.,  i.  289,  i.  292. 

,  Mr.,  i.  292. 

Langel,  Madame,  ii.  268. 

Lansdowne,  Marq.  of,  i.  250,  256. 

• House,  dinner  at,  i.  263;  concert, 

283. 
Lawrence,  Gen.,  ii.  305,  307. 

,  Bigelow,  i.  168. 

Layard,  Mr.  A.  H.,  i.  228. 

Lee,  Gen.,  i.  386 ;  ii.  75 :  position  after 

the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  ii.  135. 
Leeu warden,  market  day,  ii.  332. 
Lend,  i.  41. 

Le  Strange,  Miss,  i.  216. 
Levachoff,    Count,    house    and    ball, 

i.  91. 

Leviathan,  the,  i.  243. 
Liechtenstein,  Prince,  ii.  55. 
Lincoln,  A.,  elected    president,    354; 

his  appearance,    382;    conversation 

about  England,  394;  message,  395; 

anti-slavery  proclamation,  eulogium 

on,  ii.  78 ;   presidential  message  on, 


MCCRACKEN. 

1861,  ii.  50,  95  ;  fine  character,  170  ; 
re-election,  191 ;  assassination,  201 ; 
mental  abilities,  203;  Mr.  Bright's 
opinion,  205. 

'  Lionel  Lincoln,'  Motley's  opinion  of, 
i.  3. 

Liverpool,  voyage  to,  ii.  33;  anti- 
slavery  meeting,  113. 

Lodge,  Mr.  H.  Cabot,  letter  from 
Motley  on  the  death  of  Adm.  Davis, 
ii.  404. 

London,  work  on,  i.  204;  size  of,  i. 
227 ;  breakfast  and  dinner  parties, 
i.  274;  ii.  269,  274;  return  to,  in 
1867,  259;.  suits  Motley's  health, 
368, 370.  See  also  ENGLISH  SOCIETY. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  death  of  his  wife, 
ii.  10 ;  funeral,  12  ;  first  visit  to  him 
after  his  wife's  death,  28. 

Londonderry,  March.,  i.  241. 

Lome,  Marq.  of,  visit  to  Motley,  ii.  253 

Lothrop,  Julius,  death,  ii.  163. 

Louis  Napoleon,  Motley's  dislike  of, 
i.  323;  ii.  63,  138,  144, 157,  225,  231, 
351 ;  and  Italy,  i.  327 ;  his  endea- 
vours to  induce  England  to  join  in 
the  war,  ii.  81 ;  scheme  of  a  Con- 
gress of  Sovereigns,  144  ;  his  article 
in  the  '  Moniteur,'  231 ;  tactics,  242. 

Louise,  Princess,  ii.  373,  386,  401. 

Lowe,  Mr.  (Lord  Sherbrooke),  i.  234. 

Lowell,  Mr.  J.  E.,  his  "Yankee  Idyll/ 
ii.  66;  on  the  editorship  of  the 
'  North  American  Review,'  167 ;  ap- 
peal for  contributions,  168;  change 
of  editor,  195. 

Lucas,  Mr.,  death,  ii.  205. 

Lyell,  Sir  C.,  i.  230,  234. 

Lynd  hurst,  Lord,  i.  68,  233  ;  and  Lord 
Brougham,  260,  291;  dinner  with, 
296;  his  great  kindness,  299 ;  speech 
on  foreign  politics,  326;  letter  to 
Mrs.  Motley,  ii.  16. 

Lyons,  Lord,  i.  181,  379. 

Lytton,  Lord,  his  project  of  a  Guild  of 
Authors,  i.  238,  278,  285 ;  his  noble 
life  and  untiring  industry,  ii.  360. 

M. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  J.,  i.  229. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  i.  236 ;  his  conversa- 
tion, 237,  294 ;  on  clubs,  238. 

Macleod  case,  the,  i.  65. 

McClellan,  Gen.,  i.  379 ;  military  ca- 
pacity, ii.  81,  118;  removal,  108; 
candidature  for  Presidency,  182, 191. 

McCracken,  Mr.  G.,  ii.  257,  261,  268, 
303,  304. 


INDEX. 


419 


MCDOWELL. 

McDowell,  Gen.,  i.  391,  ii.  14. 

Madonna  de  Siato,  i.  135;  Miiller's 
engraving,  137. 

Madresfield  Court,  ii.  292. 

Magalhaeni?,  M.  de,  ii.  303. 

Malakoff,  Duke  of,  i.  255. 

Malta,  voyage  to,  i.  57. 

Manassas,  ii.  18. 

Mansfield,  Mrs.,  i.  282. 

Marie  Alexandrine,  Grand  Duchess, 
presentation  to,  i.  85. 

Martineau,  Miss,  her  '  Autobiography,' 
ii.  408. 

Mason,  arrest  of,  ii.  46. 

Maur,  St.,  Lady  Ulrica,  i.  247. 

Maximilian,  Archduke,  made  Emperor 
of  Mexico,  ii.  138,  143,  154,  157. 

Meade,  Gen.,  ii.  135. 

Mentmore,  visit  to  Baron  M.  de  Boths- 
child,  ii.  363. 

Mercantile  materialism,  Dr.  Holmes 
on,  ii.  103. 

'  Merry  Mount,'  Motley's  novel,  i.  122. 

Metaphors,  stale,  i.  225. 

Michael,  Grand  Duke,  i.  88. 

Mildmay,  Mrs.,  i.  252. 

Mill,  J.  S.,  essay  in  '  Eraser's  Maga- 
zine,' ii.  64,  69 ;  on  the  war,  91 ;  on 
the  bullying  tone  of  American  cabi- 
net, ii.  115;  letter  on  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  America,  218. 

Milman,  Dean,  i.  239,  253,  ii.  279.  * 

,  Mrs.,  i.  239. 

Milnes,  Monckton,  i.  228,  278 ;  reply 
to  Lady  Palmerston,  282,  ii.  271. 
(See  Houghton.) 

Minto,  Lord  and  Lady,  ii.  401. 

Missouri,  secession  impossible  in,  i.  392. 

Mohl,  Madame,  i.  271 ;  her  Medusa 
crop,  306 ;  ii.  265. 

Molk  Monastery,  i.  37. 

Morrill  Tariff  Bill,  i.  364. 

*  Morton's  Hope,'  i.  62. 

Motley,  Mr.  J.  L.,  at  Roundhill,  i.  3 ; 
Gottingen,  18;  Berlin,  28;  Vienna, 
i.  35,  ii.  39  ;  tour  in  the  Tyrol,  i.  37 ; 
Rome,  42,  193,  315,  ii.  297;  Naples, 
i.  44 ;  Dublin,  59 ;  his  marriage,  62  ; 
Secretary  of  Legation  to  the  Kussian 
Mission,  62;  St.  Petersburg,  69; 
London,  105,  166,  220,  325,  ii.  259, 
367 ;  Dresden,  i.  128,  ii.  327  ;  Brus- 
sels, 158 ;  his  children,  i.  159,  160 ; 
Frankfort,  173,218;  Florence,  179; 
constitutional  melancholy,  183,  222, 
ii.  217,  234,  286 ;  Boston,  191,  371, 
ii.  301 ;  Nice,  i.  206 ;  his  resemblance 
to  Byron,  240 ;  at  the  Hague,  303, 
ii.  321;  appointed  United  States 


NORTON. 

Minister  to  Austria,  ii.  30 ;  his 
father's  death,  160;  grief  on  the 
death  of  his  mother,  200  ;  rumour  of 
his  recall,  218 ;  sufferings  from  neu- 
ralgia, 298 ;  appointed  Minister  to 
England,  308 ;  letter  to  Dr.  Holmes 
on  his  son's  approaching  marriage, 
319 ;  recall  from  England,  320 ;  dis- 
like to  letter-writing,  321  ;  popu- 
larity of  his  works  in  Holland,  337 ; 
at  Varzin,  343  ;  receives  his  D.  C.  L. 
degree  at  Oxford,  345 ;  at  Bourne- 
mouth, 356 ;  his  illness,  asks  advice 
of  Dr.  Holmes,  361,  376;  sudden 
attack,  374 ;  goes  to  Cannes,  376 ; 
on  the  death  of  Mr.  Sumner,  377; 
return  to  America,  339,  n. ;  member 
of  the  Institute  of  France,  390 ;  letter 
to  Dean  Stanley  on  vol.  iii.  of  his 
*  Jewish  Church,'  395  ;  to  Dr.  Holmes 
on  the  death  of  his  son-in-law,  405  ; 
increase  of  suffering  and  weakness, 
408 ;  his  death,  411. 

Motley,  Mrs.,  gift  from  English  ladies, 
ii.  324 ;  her  death,  382. 

,  Miss  Lily,  her  first  marriage,  i. 

209 ;  second  marriage,  400. 

,  Miss  Mary,  engagement  to  Mr. 

Sheridan,  ii.  320. 

,  Mr.  E.,  his  generous  assistance,  i. 

183. 

Mount  Felix,  i.  301. 

Muller,  Max,  i.  288. 

Murchison,  Sir  R.,  i.  256. 

Murray,  Mr.  John,  i.  167 ;  on  publish- 
ing the  'United  Netherlands,'  134; 
dinner  at  Wimbledon,  ii.  270. 

N. 

Naples,  i.   44;    Hadrian's  Villa,  44; 

second  visit,  58. 
Nassfeld  valley,  Cascade,  i.  41. 
Naworth  Castle,  ii.  381. 
Nesselrode,  Count,  i.  94. 
Neubach,  i.  37. 
New  England  and  Virginia,  first  settlers 

in,  ii.  111. 
Niccolosi,  i.  52. 
Nice,  i.  206 ;  climate  and  position,  206  ; 

dear  living,  208. 
North,  the,  successes  of,  ii.  73,  112; 

English  and  French  sympathy  with, 

96. 

Northumberland  House,  fete  at,  ii.  371. 
Norton,   Mrs.,   i.  242;    persons,   243; 

kindness  to  Motley,  250,  256;    her 

ballads,  263 ;  description  of  Disraeli, 

264 ;  wondrous  beauty,  276,  290,  296. 


420 


INDEX. 


OATLANDS. 

o. 

Oatlands  Park,  i.  329. 

Opera,  the,  i.  242  ;  Alboni  and  Picco- 

lomini,  i.  146,  232. 
Orange,  Prince  of,  ii.  314. 
Owen,  Prof.,  i.  333,  ii.  290. 
Oxford  Commemoration,  i.  345. 


P. 

Palfrey,  Mr.,  ii.  9,  282. 
Palmerston,    Lord,  i.    254;     his    im- 
promptu speeches,  255;  active  life, 
326. 

,  Lady,  ii.  254,  260. 

Panshanger,  ii.  367. 

Paris,   Congress  of,  the  4  articles,  i. 

380. 

Paris,  i.  106,  180 ;   work  of  improve- 
ment under  Louis  Napoleon,  181  ; 
journey  from  Borne,  322  ;  dislike  of, 
123,  180,  324,  ii.  37. 
Paris,  Comte  de,  ii.  187. 
Patterson,  Gen.,  ii.  14. 
Patti,  Adelina,  at  Vienna,  ii.  123. 
Paul's,  St.,  Charity  Children,  annual 

ceremony,  i.  252. 

Peabody,   Mr.,  excursion   to  see    the 
Leviathan,  i.  243 ;  dinner  at  Black- 
wall,  244 ;  Story's  statue  of,  ii.  298. 
Peasantry,  the  Austrian,  condition  of, 

ii.  184. 
Pembroke  Lodge,  visit  to  Lord  and 

Lady  Russell,  i.  275,  ii.  271. 
Perier,   Casimir,  and   the   diplomatic 

squabble,  i.  98. 
Peter  the  Great,  statue  of,  i.  96 ;  house, 

117. 

Petersburg,  Grant's  repulse  at,  ii.  171. 
Petersburg,  St.,  journey  from  Taurog- 
gen,  i.  73;  weather,  76;  expenses, 
77 ;  climate,  79 ;  water,  80  ;  society, 
81 ;  Court  presentation,  82  ;  Winter 
Palace,  83 ;  morning  costume,  84  ; 
Ball,  in  Salle  Blanche,  87 ;  banquets, 
88 ;  churches,  95 ;  quays,  &c.,  96  ; 
public  institutions,  97 ;  Foundling 
Hospitals,  97 ;  Gostivoi  Dvor,  Nevski 
Prospect,  108;  want  of  proportion, 
111 ;  Academy  of  Science,  115 ; 
blessing  of  the  water,  116 ;  House  of 
Peter  the  Great,  117;  military  hos- 
pitals, 117 ;  Hermitage  gallery,  119 ; 
the  '  Enfants  Trouves,'  120. 
Philobiblon  Society,  breakfast  with 

Mr.  Turner,  ii.  274. 
Pierce,  Gen.,  i.  332. 
Plesse  Castle,  i.  25. 


EODMAN. 

Poland,  insurrection  in,  ii.  119. 
Political  Economy,  first  principles  of, 

ii.  176 ;  ebb  and  flow  of  gold,  177  ; 

paper      currency,      177;      national 

economy,  179. 

Politics,  state  of,  in  1858,  i.  249 ;  Eng- 
lish and  American  compared,   170 

(See  England). 
Pollock,  Mr.  F.,  ii.  269. 
Poltimore  Park,  visit  to,  ii.  360. 
Porter,  Sir  R.,  i.  83,  93. 
— — ,  Miss,  authoress  of  '  Thaddeus  of 

Warsaw/  i.  93. 
Postilions,  German,  i.  17,  36. 
Potomac  river,  the,  i.  384. 
Potsdam,  i.  32 ;  ball  at,  33. 
Prescott,  Mr.  W.  H.,  i.  171 ;  letter  in 

praise  of  the  '  Dutch  Republic,'  191. 
Presidency,  candidates    for,  ii.    174; 

election,  191. 

Press,  the  English,  on  the  War,  ii.  35. 
Prince  Consort,  the.  interview  with,  ii. 

36. 

Prinsterer,  Mr.  Groen  van,  i.  210. 
Procter,  Mrs.,  i.  239. 
Prussia,  Government  of,  i.  70 ;  vicissi- 
tudes and  condition,  i.  76 ;  state  of* 

324 ;  the  future  of,  ii.  223  ;  position, 

236. 
,  King  of,  visit  to  Vienna,  ii.  172  ; 

Motley's  introduction  to,  173 ;  Crown 

Princess  of,  ii.  105. 
Prussian  Army,  advance  of,  ii.   233 ; 

rapidity  of  the  1866  campaign,  236. 
Public  Galleries,  Libraries,  &c.,  want 

of  in  America,  i.  29. 
Putnam,  Willie,  death  of,  ii.  41. 


Q- 

Queen  Victoria,  interview  at  Balmoral, 

ii.  36. 
Quincy,  Mr.  J.,  ii.  28,  68. 

R. 

Radicalism  in  America,  ii.  255. 

Randolph,  J.,  description  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, i.  80. 

Rappahannock,  concentration    of   the 
troops  of  the  Union  army,  ii.  90. 

Reeve,  Mr.  H.,  i.  233. 

Reform  Bill,  the,  ii.  264,  267. 

Rhine,  the,  in  Holland,  i.  124;    Dra- 
chenfels,  125. 

Richmond,  dinner  at,  i.  257,  272 ;  view 
from  the  hill,  ii.  271. 
—  battles,  the,  ii.  83. 

Rodman,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  ii.  274. 


INDEX. 


421 


ROME. 

Rome,  the  Apollo  Belvedere,  i.  42; 
Guide's  Aurora,  47 ;  domestic  life  in, 
319. 

Rothschild,  Baron  L.,  i.  281. 

,  Baroness  Alphonse,  her  oriental 

beauty,  i.  281. 

Meyer  de,  letter  from  Motley, 

ii.  364;  on  the  death  of  his  wife, 
382. 

Rotterdam,  voyage  to,  i.  301. 

Round  Hill  School  at  Northampton,  i. 
3 ;  reading-room,  7. 

Royal  Academy  dinner,  i.  342 ;  Motley's 
speech,  343. 

Ruben's  picture  of  the  *  Descent  from 
the  Cross '  at  Antwerp,  i.  164. 

Ruskin,  Mr.,  i.  332. 

Russell,  Earl,  i.  247 ;  his  conversation, 
249 ;  luncheon  with,  300 ;  letter  to 
Mr.  Everett,  ii.  24;  Motley  at  Aber- 
geldie,  35 ;  on  vol.  iii.  of  the  '  United 
Netherlands,'  296. 

,  Lady  William,  i.  234,  256,  257; 

letter  from  Motley  with  New  Year's 
greeting,  ii.  109;  Viennese  society, 
131 ;  on  the  condition  of  Austria, 
250  ;  on  her  son  Odo's  marriage,  297  ; 
congratulation  on  her  son's  promo- 
tion, 322. 

,  Lord  Arthur,  illness  of  his  little 

son,  ii.  325. 

Russia,  state  of,  i.  96  ;  emancipation  of 
the  Serfs,  ii.  119. 

and  America,  i.  170;    aifection 

between,  ii.  119,  336:  See  PETERS- 
BURG. 

Russian  taxes  and  guilds,  i.  110;  slaves, 
110;  social  rank,  112;  food  supply, 
army,  113  ;  manufactures,  114. 


S. 

Salisbury,  i.  59  ;  cathedral,  160. 

Salzach,  valley  of  the,  i.  40. 

Salzburg,  i.  38 ;  gateway,  ancient  her- 
mitage, 38  ;  curious  tombs,  39 ;  Hal- 
lein  salt  mines,  39. 

Sardinia,  King  of,  his  fine  character,  i. 
323 ;  alliance  with  the  French  Em- 
peror, 323. 

Sargent,  Mr.  Turner-,  death,  ii.  403. 

*  Saturday  Review,'  notice  of  '  Poet  of 
the  Breakfast  Table,'  ii.  360. 

Savigny,  Mr.  Von.  i.  29;  lectures  on 
the  Pandects,  30. 

Saxony,  King  and  Queen  of,  presenta- 
tion to,  i.  150 ;  costumes  and  etiquette, 
151. 


SORRENTO. 

Scheveningeu,  ii.  392 
Schleswig-Holstein  question,  the,  ii.  156, 

159,  214. 

Schonbrunn,  festivities,  ii.  172. 
Scott,  Gen.,  his  plans  and  preparations, 

i.   374;    soldierly  appearance,   378; 

and  his  officers,  392,  ii.  5,  15,  17; 

reception  of  his   name  at  Harvard 

University,  ii.  17. 
Secessionists    and   public    opinion    in 

England,  i.  364. 
Secretary  of  Legation  to  the  Russian 

Mission,  Motley    appointed,   i.   62: 

resignation,  95. 

Seebach,  M.  and  Mdme.,  ii.  327. 
Sefton,  Lord,  i.  296. 
Semester,  first,  at  Gottingen,  i.  14. 
Senior,  Mr.  Nassau,  i.  254,  287. 

,  Mrs.  Nassau,  Junr.,  i.  288. 

Seward,  Mr.,  i.  377;  negotiations  with 

England,  381 ;  his  ability,  ii.  138. 
Seymour,  Sir  H.,  i.  276. 

,  Mr.  Danby,  i.  280. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  i.  287. 

,  Lady,  i.  287. 

Shah,  the,  at  Chiswick,  ii.  369. 
Shaw,  Col.  R.,  his  death,  poem  to  his 

memory,  ii.  151. 
Shelburne,  Lady,  i.  263. 
Shelley,  Sir  Percy,  ii.  359;  relics  of  his 

father,  359. 
Sheridan,  Mr.  B.,  i.  277 ;  his  wife,  ii. 

294. 
,  Mr.  A.,  letter  from  Motley  on  the 

birth  of  his  son,  ii.  581. 
Sherman,  Lieut.,  ii.  234. 

,  Senator,  ii.  305. 

Shuter's  Hill,  fortifications  at,  i.  385. 
Sicily,  i.  48 ;  its  fruits  and  flowers,  49. 
Silchester,  remains  of  an  ancient  Roman 

town,  ii.  281. 
Sina,  Baron,  ii.  110,  123. 
Skirmish  of  the  18th  July,  ii.  18. 
Slavery    question,    i.     147,    381  ;     in 
America,  358,  ii.  150. 

party  in  England,  ii.  53. 

Slaves,  the  emancipation,  their  singing 

to  raise  money,  ii.  372. 
Slidell,  arrest  of,  ii.  46. 
Smith,  Prof.  Goldwin,  article  on  the 
war  in  the  'Daily  News,'  ii.   112, 

— ,  Dr.  W.,  ii.  270. 

— ,  Vernon,  i.  296. 
Soeterwonde,  M.  Elout  de,  i.  305. 
Somerset,  Duchess  of,  i.  246 ;  breakfast 

party  at  Wimbledon,  247. 
Sontag,  at  Dresden,  i.  131. 
Sorrento,  excursion  to,  i.  195. 


422 


INDEX. 


SPEIGEL. 

Speigel,  Count,  visit  to  his  chateau,  ii. 
184-186. 

Stackpole,  Mr.  Lewis,  i.  364. 

Stafford  House,  i.  282;  pictures,  282; 

ft  ball,  ii.  263. 

Stanhope,  Lord,  i.  283,  287. 

,  Lady,  ii.  275. 

Stanley,  Dean,  i.  288;  on  Motley's 
speech,  ii.  374 ;  on  receiving  the 
'  Life  of  Barneveld/  375 ;  his  sermon 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  411;  letter 
to,  on  the  '  History  of  the  Jews,  ii. 
395. 

,  Lady  Augusta,  ii.  263. 

,  Lady,  of  Alderley,  i.  240,  245, 

258. 

,  Miss,  i.  251. 

,  Lyulph,  ii.  264. 

Stanton,  Edwin,  ii.  210. 

Stirling-Maxwell,  W.,  i.  227,  ii.  270 ; 
'  Cloister  Life  of  Charles  V.,'  i.  331. 

Stockhausen,  Baron,  ii.  329. 

Stoke  Park,  i.  292. 

Stonehenge,  i.  60. 

Storks,  Sir  H,  ii.  270. 

Story,  Mr.,  his  sculpture,  i.  319. 

Stratford  de  Kedcliffe,  Lord,  i.  260  ;  ii. 
266,  290. 

Strathfieldsaye,  ii.  279. 

Students,  German,  costumes,  pipes,  i. 
19;  duelling,  20;  Landsmannschaf- 
ten,  20 ;  '  Dummer  Junge,'  22  ;  Brii- 
derschaft,  23,  25 ;  taste  for  music,  23. 

Studies,  various,  at  Kound  Hill,  i.  5 ; 
classical,  6. 

Studley  Royal,  Eipori,  1,  349. 

Sturgis,  Mr.,  i.  169,  et  seq. 

Sumner,  Mr.  ii.  20;  urges  Motley's 
appointment  to  Vienna,  31,  354  ;  his 
death,  377 ;  Schurz's  eulogy,  378. 

Styria,  journey  to,  i.  36. 

Sutherland,  Duchess  of,  i.  277,  ii.  277. 


T. 


Taglioni,  i.  31,  93. 

Taormina,  i.  49. 

Tauroggen,  i.  72. 

Taylor,  Mr.  H.  i.  298. 

Taymouth  Castle,  i.  353. 

Temple  church  and  gardens,  i,  253. 

Tennessee,  East,  fund,  Motley's  sub- 
scription to,  ii.  156. 

Thackeray,  on  the  'Autocrat  of  the 
Breakfast  Table,'  i.  226 ;  his  appear- 
ance, 229;  dinner  with,  235,  261; 
lecture  at  Lady  Stanley's,  241 ;  and 
the 'Virginians,' 279. 


VETTURINO. 

Thackeray,  Miss,  ii.  365. 

Thale,  ii.  349. 

Thiers,  i.  105,  106. 

'  Thirty  Years'  War,'  intention  of  writ- 
ing a  history  of,  ii.  188. 

Thomas,  Gen.,  ii.  303. 

Thouvenel,  M.,  ii.  37,  43. 

Thynne,  Lady  E.,  i.  250. 

Ticknor,  Mr.,  i.  143  ;  letter  acknowledg- 
ing the  'United  Netherlands,'  299. 

Tieck's  works,  i.  35. 

Tilsit,  i.  72. 

'  Times,'  the,  articles  on  the  '  United 
Netherlands,'  i.  358 ;  Motley's  letter 
on  the  Civil  War,  372, 380  ;  supports 
the  Southern  Confederacy,  ii.  48 ;  ex- 
tent of  its  influence,  114. 

Todd,  Col.,  i.  65,  74. 

'Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,'  i.  285; 
American  edition,  ii.  29. 

Townley,  Col.,  journey  from  St.  Peters- 
burg to  Berlin,  i.  99. 

Townsend,  Mr.,  ii.  278. 

Traunstein  mountain,  i.  37. 

Trench,  Archbishop,  letter  from  Motley 
thanking  him  lor  his  work  on  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  ii.  352. 

'  Trent,'  the,  affair  of,  ii.  45,  59,  71. 

Trollope,  Anthony,  ii.  265. 

Troops,  massing  of,  at  Washington., 
i.  385;  number  of,  in  the  United 
States,  ii.  14 ;  commanders,  14. 

Turco-Russian  War,  ii.  401. 

Twisleton,  Hon.  E.,  ii.  134. 

Tyler's  Brigade,  ii.  18. 

U. 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  i.  148. 

United  Netherlands,  History  of  the, 
progress  of,  i.  207 ;  difficulties,  317, 
329 ;  doubts  about  title,  318  ;  unex- 
pected length,  348 ;  sale  of,  355  ;  pub- 
lication in  America,  363 ;  progress  of, 
ii.  188  ;  completion  of  the  concluding 
volumes,  253 ;  passing  through  the 
press,  257. 

V. 

Van  der  Weyer,  ii.  202. 

VanEyck,  J.  and  H.,  i.  107. 

'  Varius,'  ii.  110. 

Varzin,  Motley's  visit  to,  ii.  320. 

Vasa,     Princess,    married    to    Prince 

Albert  of  Saxony,  i.  153, 157. 
Vaughan,  Sir  C.  i.  68. 
Venables,  Mr.,  i.  280. 
Venice,  ii.  186. 
Vetturinb,  journey  to  Italy,  i.  181. 


INDEX. 


423 


VEVAY. 

Vevay,  residence  at,  180. 

Vicksburg,  surrender  of,  ii.  135. 

Vienna,  i.  35 ;  life  in,  ii.  39 ;  society 
compared  with  London,  55,  ii.  69, 72, 
109-125, 246-256, 117,  131-148, 189 ; 
theatres,  61 ;  Court  at,  69 ;  '  Salons,' 
117,  131;  Climate,  133;  drought, 
143  ;  Court  dinner,  152 ;  winter,  195 ; 
panic  in,  232. 

Conference,  ii.  170  ;  Peace  Con- 
ference, 191. 

Virginia,  counter  revolution  in,  1.  389. 

'  Von/  the  three  magical  letters,  i.  32. 


W. 

Wadsworth,  Gen.,  ii.  106. 

,  Mrs.,  letter  from  Motley  on  the 

death  of  his  wife,  ii.  385  ;  his  future 
plans,  386. 

Wales,  Prince  of,  at  Kome,  i.  320 ;  ap- 
pearance and  character,  321 ;  visit  to 
America,  354,  372. 

War,  the  Civil  in  America,  prepara- 
tions, ii.  6;  objects  and  prospects  of, 
13;  inevitability  of  it,  27  ;  reflections 
on,  75,  80,  89,  192  ;  sovereignty  of 
the  people,  79;  forecasts  of,  57-75, 
85  ;  drawing  to  a  close,  149,  197. 


WYNFOBD. 

Warre,  Mrs.,  i.  231,  252. 

Warsaw,  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 

ii.  132. 
Washington,  i.  377;  the  army  at,  379  ; 

journey  to,  ii.  301. 
,  George,  letter  to  the,    Rev.  J. 

Lothrop,  i.  27  n. 

Wel.ster,  Daniel,  death,  i.  147,  149. 
Weimar,  i.  103. 
Wellington,  2nd  Duke  of,  ii.  275-280. 

,  Duohess,  her  beauty,  ii.  280. 

Wensleydale,  Lord,  i.  282,  299;   letter 

on  International  Questions  and  Law, 

ii.  58,  269,  289. 
Werfen,  i.  40. 

Westminster,  Marchioness  of,  i.  272. 
Whewell,  Dr.,  on  the  war,  ii.  112. 
Wilberforce,  S.,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  i.  287; 

his  pulpit  eloquence,  ii.  285. 
William  I.  of  Orange,  i.  146. 
Williams.  Lady,  i.  269,  293. 
Winthrop,    Major,     killed    at    Great 

Bethel,  i.  385. 
Witley,  ii.  292. 

Witt,  de  J.,  residence  of,  ii.  332. 
Women's  League,  the,  ii.  176,  179. 
Woronzow,  Countess,  her  fortnightly 

balls,  i.  91. 
Wylie,SirW.,  i.  95. 
Wynford,  Lord,  i.  134,  170. 


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